Remnant of a past Humanity
by JeremiahRavenor
Summary: Launched long ago, the Arkship Edelweiss, culmination of generations of human knowledge and ingenuity, escaped from a dying Earth. Now resettled, the descendants of its crew and passengers are united under the banner of the Deorian Federation. During a routine patrol, one unlucky ship, the destroyer Kashgar, finds itself pulled to a mysterious world, a Remnant of a past Humanity…
1. Chapter 1: Landing is the hardest part

**On-board** **the _Kashgar_ , somewhere in the cold emptiness of space...**

A massive headache was all Roy could feel when he woke up. A dull pain across his left temple made him wonder if it wasn't better to stay unconscious for a little while. Instead, he started to hear some muffled sounds, until he could discern the grave sound of the Battle Stations alarm, and the sounds of gunfire echoing through the walls. As his mind finally started to process his situation, he opened his eyes and tried to get up. When he tried to reach the ground, he realized that everything around was floating, including himself. The young lieutenant taped his heels to activate his magnetic boots, stepped on the ground and checked more carefully his surroundings. He was in a dark corridor with dim red lighting, his rifle floating away. He was alone here, but he could still hear gunshots in the distance. This was good news, it meant that he wasn't the only one left and that the ship still had life support up and running. It was also bad news, because they were still fighting. Even worse, if the ship was in zero g, then they were losing.

Roy reached for his weapon and realized that his radio was no longer working when he felt a dent in the side of his helmet, followed by static in his ears. Disappointed, he turned on his helmet-mounted flashlights, checked his suit's terminal and headed for the nearest security station. He was second-in-command of the ship's marine detachment, surely his credentials were still valid. The lieutenant wandered carefully, checking every room and corner he came across while trying to remember all that happened.

It was all supposed to be a routine patrol, it was even his first assignment after his graduation from Officer School and his training in the Federal Rangers, but a distress call from a nearby research station changed all of that. Rescuing the scientists from the pirate raiders was easy, even recovering their "artifact" wasn't much trouble. No, the real problem started when _something_ ambushed the _Kashgar_ after they left the station. It didn't look like anything man-made, which sent shivers down Roy's spine. Their new enemy also had four smaller escort ships, didn't hail back and attacked immediately. Perhaps the life-long question of _Are we alone in the universe?_ has finally been answered. To make things worse, they packed quite a punch. The _Kashgar_ was outmatched and outnumbered. Against five hostile and unknown targets, the lone destroyer fought well, but could not hope for victory. After losing three of the four escort ships, the aggressors were nearly at point blank range and launched a boarding party. Unfortunately for them, Captain Robins was not keen on losing his ship so easily and ordered an emergency jump. A final volley of the ship's main guns crippled the massive claws that kept the _Kashgar_ on a leach, and the lone destroyer limped towards a safe FTL vector. As the FTL drive engulfed the ship however, something interacted with the quantum portal. The ship was subject to a sudden and powerful acceleration, and then nothing.

It was strange, really, recalling all of that. Roy was tempted to think it was all just a dream while he drunkenly lied on the officer mess's floor, but his left temple indicated otherwise. After a while, he reached a large room with a central desk. Once convinced that the room was clear, he checked his suit's terminal for his oxygen levels. Four more hours, he only spent fifteen minutes to reach his destination. The room was large and hexagonal, with a large door behind the main desk leading into a small armory. As he walked toward the desk, Roy looked out the window. It was more of a flat screen displaying live feed from the outside cameras, but the result was the same. They weren't in their asteroid ring anymore, and there wasn't a fucking space whaly thing parked outside either, which was good. What was more worrying, perhaps, was the large, shattered moon they were sailing by. A problem for another time, with some luck.

Roy sat on the leather seat and entered his credentials in the desk's computer. He started by checking the latest sit-rep. Ship's bridge was gone, detonated by Captain Robins himself. Aux. CIC was overrun, and ship controls are in lock-down. Order to abandon ship. Not a whole lot of good news, then. He then switched to the internal cameras and his heart grew tight. Most of the ship's crew was already dead, and it wasn't pretty. Most died impaled or squashed against pipes or bulkheads when the inertial dampeners fried, but some were killed by weapon fire or worse. Some corridors had creatures roaming inside, and those were definitely not human. They looked like a mix of insect and wolf, with armor plates and large, bloody teeth. On the bright side, the fighting was down in Engineering and the hangar bay, mostly, so he would not have too much trouble for now. There wasn't many on either side, so maybe they could win this. The ship still had atmosphere in most sections, including his, so he could get another helmet from the armory, and even spend some time to gear up. Unfortunately, security terminals don't have access to navigational data, so he'd have to regroup with the rest of the crew to know more about their situation. He tried to contact the ship's AI, Elena, but only got automated responses. Might be something to do with that lock-down. Given his location, his best bet would be the hangar through the maintenance elevator.

Roy spent another ten minutes in the armory before heading out. If it all went well, he wouldn't meet anything until he reaches the elevator. After donning his new helmet, he could now hear the radio chatter while it adjusted itself to his suit's settings. Once done, he switched to a general frequency:

"This is 2nd lieutenant Anderson, does anyone copy? Over."

After a short silence, an angry voice answered him:

"Lt. Anderson, please refrain from using an open frequency and switch to 456.821, out."

Roy nodded in his empty corridor and tapped some buttons on his suit's terminal.

"This it Lt. Anderson, please come in, over."

"Anderson, where the hell have you been for the last hour?! Over."

Roy recognized the Russian accent of Lt. Commander Dyogtrev, the ship's XO.

"Knocked out cold, sir. I'm on deck 7C, heading towards the hangar, over."

Another moment of silence. Roy started to wonder if it was such a good idea to use the radio.

"Fine, be quick, we're leaving as soon as we reach low orbit. Dyogtrev out."

Low orbit. These words ringed a few bells in the lieutenant's mind. As he ran at a good pace towards the hangar, he started to piece it together. If there was a moon, then there was a planet nearby. Since lifeboats were not designed for an atmospheric entry and didn't have the engine power to stay in orbit, the only option left to abandon ship lies in the hangar. This, coupled with the ship's state and the fighting concentrated on the hangar and the engine room meant that the _Kashgar_ was beyond saving.

Roy reached the elevator without too much trouble, even wondering when luck would leave him. He instantly regretted it when one of the roaming creatures found him. Without thinking, Roy mashed the call button before emptying his weapon on the creature running towards him. The first shots hit it right in the chest, slowing it down but not killing it. The second volley tore away its left leg, but the creature carried its momentum and slid towards the lieutenant, who backed into the elevator. As the doors closed, Roy fired a last volley into the creature's head, who fell on the floor, lifeless. Cautiously, Roy pushed away the clawed limb blocking the door with his rifle and sat down, exhausted. As the adrenaline wore off, Roy stood back up and reloaded his rifle, keeping the empty power cell in his ammo bandoleer. Shortly after, the elevator doors opened, and Roy was greeted with half a dozen barrels pointed towards him.

"Geez! Don't shoot! Friendly!"

"Ah, fuck, El-Tee, you scared the crap out of us." sighed one of the men, lowering his weapon. The others quickly followed. Roy noticed that only two had armor, the four others were still wearing their navy uniform. Roy walked past their makeshift cover and gave a quick salute to the man who talked to him.

"Sorry about that. Trying to NOT get eaten, you know, the usual."

Roy looked at his name plate. Sergeant J. Chester. The name didn't ring any bells. Roy probably met him a couple of times, but that was about it.

"Eh, yeah, I can see that." chuckled Chester, pointing at the blood splatters on Roy's armor. It was black, and viscous, but didn't seem dangerous. "You should meet up with the others on Bay Two, they're prepping for evac."

"Duly noted. See you soon, sergeant!" It felt weird, being an officer at his age. Most non-commissioned officers were probably ten or fifteen years older than him, and yet there he was, the man in charge of all of them. Well, almost. There was Cpt. Rachel Mella, the redhead in charge of the 117 marines of the _Kashgar_. Some tried to seduce her. Most of them ended up in the kitchen or in the sickbay. Thinking about every day's life on the _Kashgar_ cracked a smile on Roy's face, although no one could see it behind his vacuum-proof helmet. It wasn't long before a certain Lt. Commander snapped him out of it.

"Anderson, are you listening to me?"

"Sorry sir, yes sir."

"Focus, lieutenant. I'll start again. We loaded up the artifact and the scientists on Lotus One and Arrowhead. Six of us will go with them, the rest will leave on Lotus Two. There isn't room for everyone, so the rest will hurry back to Engineering and hope for the best. Anderson, you'll be in charge of Lotus Two, Cpt. Mella will stay with the scientists. From what we got off Aux. CIC before we left, we have about ten minutes before the ship reaches the atmosphere, make them count. Move out!"

Roy remained still for a few seconds, looking at everyone around while he processed what the XO told him. Diogtrev was surprisingly calm, and from what he said, he wasn't leaving the ship. The man may be an asshole, but he was an honorable asshole. From what he saw on the cameras, there was about fifty of them still alive across the ship, and there was only room for nineteen. Well, the fight wasn't over yet, so maybe it wouldn't be so much of an issue. Roy hurried to Bay Three, where Lotus Two was parked. The craft was still tethered to the fuel line, and three missiles were magnetically locked on a chariot beneath its right wing. Apparently, Roy didn't have to choose who gets a lift, as three sailors decided to join Diogtrev. This left him with twelve men and women, including the pilot, call sign Hot Dog. All around, people were leaving the other exits to regroup on the main corridor. Roy could see some of them shooting in the darkness, but saw no return fire. They were winning, then. Roy looked back at his group. Four marines were covering the craft's rear ramp while the others were untethering the craft, loading some crates and finally going up the ramp. No one asked any questions. No one complained. No one talked at all. It was as if everyone came to term with their fate, leaving their lives at the mercy of whatever god was watching. Roy himself walked up the ramp and took a last gaze on the hangar bay. There was little trace of fighting now, a lot of cargo crates scattered around, some bodies here and there, kept in place by their magnetic boots, blood floating around along with weapons and debris. He was lucky, the worst of the fight was probably down in Engineering, where the intruders realized that they had to pull the ship into a safe orbit, or a controlled descent, if they wanted to live through all of this. Back towards the main corridor, he saw the Lt. Commander and a dozen others heading towards the darkness. Things started to move back toward the ground. They already reached the gravity well, then. Roy closed the ramp and switched to short range radio.

"Okay people, saddle up, we're dusting off imminently."

As the ramp closed up, Roy saluted one last time his commanding officer, before settling on his seat. He heard the sound of the cabin being pressurized, and the plasma thrusters coming online. As the harness locked them onto their seats, the craft's intercom came to life:

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for flying Air Hot Dog, I'll be your captain for today. Outside's temperature is 230°C and rising fast. Our flight will take uh… a while and there will be turbulence."

The pilot's attempt at humor was… refreshing. It felt as if it was just another mission, not a desperate escape from a burning ship. Of course, it wouldn't hide the facts, but the anxiety fell even so slightly. Some marine raised his head and shouted:

"Hey, El-Tee! Think Cpt. Mella will leave anyone standing in her plane?"

The others started laughing. While it was true that Cpt. Mella took Roy under her wing when it came to leadership, by no mean did this make her any nicer off duty. Well, maybe a bit.

"I don't know, want me to kick your balls in her stead?"

More laugh. This was good, the ambiance wasn't that dramatic anymore.

"Think the others will be fine?"

"We'll know soon enough…"

The craft started to shake, while the cabin's temperature rose slowly. They were out of the ship, but still far from safe.

* * *

 **0100 hours, Beacon Academy, team RWBY's dorm**

It was late at night. Ruby was still working on her homework up in her bunk bed. While the girl was somewhat hyperactive when it was about weapons and fighting, she was much less diligent with professor Oobleck's history lessons. Lost in thoughts, Ruby stopped pretending and dropped her pen on her notebook. She looked out the window and sighed. She rolled on her back, wondering if Jaune would be faring any better on his assignment. She even considered copying Weiss' work, but the heiress would probably lecture her again about being a responsible leader. She wouldn't be wrong, either. As her mind wandered about totally-important stuff, Ruby realized that she was watching the largest shooting star she ever saw. Unlike any other, that one was much slower, giving Ruby all the time in the world to admire it. The more she watched, the more details she could discern with her sharp, trained eyes. After a moment, she realized that it was more than just a shooting star. While it seemed like a single trail in the sky, she could discern several more coming from it, and their numbers kept growing. By now what she saw was a beautiful myriad of white and yellow trails in the sky. Ruby had to take some pictures. Hell, her team needed to see this. Especially her best friend. Ruby jumped down from her bed and started to shake her partner.

"Weiss! Weeeiiiiss! Wake up! You've gotta see this! Weiss!"

"Ruby...What's going on?" groaned a half-asleep Weiss.

"Look out the window! Isn't it pretty?" Ruby was almost jumping on the spot now. As soon as Weiss got up, she dashed to Blake and her sister. After both groaned, an ecstatic Ruby pointed towards the sky.

"Everyone, look! Before it disappears!"

"Uuuugghhh, Ruby, it's way too late for… wooaaaa" Yang suddenly had her eyes wide open, taking in the sights.

"What is it?" asked Blake while joining the others on the window.

"I have no idea but it's so coooool!" Ruby looked like a five-year-old kid at that point. Weiss, however, looked worried.

"This doesn't look natural. Whatever this is I'm sure it's not just a big shooting star."

"Shhh, don't ruin the moment, Weiss!"

Ruby watched in awe, but Weiss' words kept her focused. Ruby tried to look for anything worth mentioning, but the trails were just that: trails of light. The four girls could do little more than watch with fear and curiosity until the trails died down, their final moments forming a rain of light in the sky.

"Well, I guess that's that" Yang yawned, leaving her Scroll on the bookshelf. "I'm going back to bed."

"Yeah, it's late Ruby, we should go back to sleep."

Ruby, however, didn't answer. She had her eyes locked on a small flickering light moving in the distance. It wasn't there before, surely it had something to do with the phenomenon. Weiss stepped closer to Ruby.

"Do you see something?"

"I'm not sure… I think something's out there."

Weiss tried to look for whatever Ruby was thinking about but couldn't see anything unusual.

"Well, don't stay up all night, we've got classes tomorrow."

"Yeah, you're right…" reluctantly said Ruby as she turned around. "I just…"

As Ruby looked back out the window, there wasn't a doubt anymore. A black dot in the middle of a flickering light, growing larger as time passes...What she saw was definitely an aircraft, and one coming at high speed towards Beacon.

"Ha! I knew it!" claimed Ruby as she turned to look at Weiss, a triumphant look on her face.

"But… I don't see anything! Ruby, are you sure you're not just tired?" Weiss wasn't worried now, she was exasperated by Ruby's antics. Ruby looked saddened by Weiss' reply, and turned back to the window.

The black dot and flickering light were closer now. She could almost tell it was an oval. Ruby sighed.

"Pretty sure, yeah. It's not my first time finishing up late."

It was true, she jumped two years ahead, of course she'd be lacking in some subjects. Ruby worked hard to not let that plunder her grades. And for the most part, it paid off. Ruby looked up again towards the flickering light but couldn't find it. Instead she found two teardrop-shaped white-bluish light beneath a dark shape.

"Look! This isn't a star, is it?"

Weiss bent forward, as if it'd help her see into the night. To her surprise, she could actually see what Ruby was talking about. After a few moments, a faint sound reached team RWBY's ears. As the white-bluish lights drew closer, the sound grew louder, until it was a continuous roaring that forced Yang and Blake out of their beds.

"Uuuuggh, what is that noise? Can't we sleep in peace?!" Yang was still half asleep, but conscious enough to sound angry.

"It's an airship, and it's really weird, look!" Ruby pointed toward the light with a worried look. Weiss was still focused on the object.

"Airships don't make this sound… whatever this is, it's something new." mumbled Weiss. Before she could add anything, the lights died out, and the roaring stopped. A black aircraft could still be seen in its place. It looked like a bullhead, but fatter, uglier. Its engines were over-sized, nearly the size of the fuselage itself, and pointed downward. Well, they were, before they rotated to be horizontal again. Before she could look further, the aircraft streamed past Beacon Academy, under the watchful eyes of team RWBY. Shortly after, a loud crash along with broken trees could be heard. Ruby turned towards her team.

"You guys thinking what I think?"

"You bet, sis!" Yang smiled, already fetching her clothes. Blake nodded, and Weiss crossed her arms, a faint look of approval in her eyes. Ruby smiled at her team. Moments like this make her realize how far they'd come since their initiation.

"Let's hurry, I'll call the headmaster!"

* * *

 **0100 hours, skies of Vale**

Roy and the eleven others were all strapped in their seats for the last thirty minutes, the dim red lighting filling the cabin. In this time, they got to know each other a bit. The turbulence and the noise of debris impacting the hull aside, it could've been like any other insertion. Roy was the only Ranger among the group. Five others were naval personnel and the rest were marines. Roy knew one of them, Private Oliver McKelley. An eighteen-year-old kid who was a lot more muscles than brains but was good company. He was transferred to the _Kashgar_ with the same shuttle than Roy and was barely younger. It was his first assignment, too. The others, Roy didn't remember all their names. Mike, Denis, Julie, Stella, Peter and some more. They all talked for a bit, but the conversation didn't go far. Some of their people wouldn't make it. Hell, most of their people didn't make it. Out of the 526 crew members, they were only thirteen of them left for sure. Breaking the uncomfortable silence, the pilot's intercom turned on:

"Alright lads, I've got good news and bad news. Good news is that sensors are saying breathable atmosphere and I can see a lot of fancy lights down there, so we're not alone on this rock. Bad news is, we lost our comms in the debris field, so we lost contact with Arrowhead and Lotus One. And last thing, we're running low on fuel. Tank's taken a few hits, no way I'd burn that much."

"Set us down, Hot Dog, find us a nice place."

"Already on it, skipper. There's a large plateau with some sort of... temple...thing on it, I'm landing on that. Buckle up lads, we're in for a rough ride."

"Aw, come on! Can't we have a nice trip for once?"

As the intercom switched back off, the passengers could hear the craft's hydraulic system rotating the engines to slow their descent. The cabin was suddenly pulled upward, crushing its occupants into their seats. The transition wasn't smooth, Roy gritted his teeth to endure the deceleration. After a little while, however, the engine's constant roaring became intermittent, and eventually stopped. The weight crushing everyone in their seats was lifted, letting them breathe normally again.

"We're all gonna die, aren't we?"

"No, he can pull it off, right? Right?"

"Just hold on, guys. If there's one thing I remember from basics, it's that landing is the hardest part..." said Roy as he closed his eyes and braced himself for impact.


	2. Chapter 2: The rescue

**0137 hours, Emerald Forest**

For the second time, Roy woke up feeling nothing but pain. This time, however, it was everywhere. He grunted while he tried to unfasten his seat's harness. As he reached for his rifle in the rack to his left, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm. Something wasn't right with it. Probably broken. Breathing too much was painful, some ribs were probably fractured, too. Roy put his rifle on his back, grimacing from the pain, and looked around. He noticed that some weren't in such a good state either. Four of his comrades were still unconscious. Two of the marines were already outside, weapons drawn. A blonde in armor was checking on Eizan, one of the ship's mechanics. She had a medical satchel, a medic then. Roy disabled his magnetic boots and checked on the man to his left. Seaman El Rahid. The man was in his twenties, maybe his early thirties. He had a pulse and no visible injuries, which meant that he was probably safe to transport. Roy unfastened the man's harness and carried him outside. He left El Rahid next to a wounded marine and walked around the wreck. The cockpit was open, with a concerned Hot Dog looking at it. The pilot was smoking a cigarette, seemingly lost in thought.

"Well, talk about a bumpy ride."

"Mmmhh, can't say it's my worse landing, skipper."

"Somehow this doesn't surprise me. How's it looking?"

"Well, apart from the empty fuel tank and fried antenna, my girl's still in good shape. We skiffed for a good hundred meters before dropping from that cliff. Landing gear took a beating, but those trees took the brunt of the impact." Hot Dog pointed behind him at the trail of broken trees going all the way to a cliff. Roy could've sworn he saw a small figure up there. "Engines soaked up quite a few branches, too. Not sure if they'll work right now, but we build tough stuff."

"Okay, what about casualties? Some of us don't seem to be in a good shape."

"Well, no one died so far. Some broken bones and concussions, but everyone's alive. Medic's checking to be sure, but I think they'll be fine."

"Good to know. Nice work out there."

"Yeah yeah, just doin' my job, skipper."

Hot Dog was probably in his thirties. He didn't sound like he took Roy seriously. Maybe he never really took anyone seriously. He did earn his call sign, after all. That ought to be an interesting story. He never looked at Roy, his eyes still throwing a blank expression at the painted teeth below the canopy. Roy turned around and walked back towards the newly-made clearing right outside the passenger cabin. Two marines were standing guard while the rest were setting up a perimeter with glow sticks. Roy counted six of them. Nine if he counted Eizan, the wounded marine and El Rahid leaning against some tree stumps. With him and Hot Dog, that made eleven, so two were already missing. Roy checked back into the aircraft to be sure, but the cabin was empty, some cargo crates in the back and a few bandages and empty syringes lying around. At least everyone's awake now. Roy turned back toward the clearing and noticed that one of the crates, an emergency kit, was open and lying in the middle. That crate contained a few useful things like some glow sticks, flares, food, but most importantly, an emergency broadcast beacon.

Roy unsealed his helmet with a hiss and dropped it next to the beacon. The night air was refreshing, smelling of wood and leaves. He took his purple beret from one of his chest pockets, looking at the insignia. Federal Rangers, it said. To protect mankind, his mind thought. That was their motto, their raison d'être. Rangers were more than elite infantry. They were the guardians of peace, and above all else, of human life. They were usually sent to the most unstable colonies, not to enforce laws, but to enforce human rights. Fighting against organized crime, rebel groups and rising dictatorships with subtlety and swiftness was their specialty. To become a Ranger, you'd have to serve for five years and reach the rank of Staff-Sergeant of higher, among other things. Roy was the exception. Shaking off his thoughts, Roy donned his beret and activated the beacon. He then approached one of the marines guarding the area. With their suit's multi-spectrum visor and built-in motion sensor, if anything happened out there, they'd know.

"Hey, uh… Mike, right?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I only count eleven of us here, know where uh… the last two went off?"

"Oh, sure, Ben needed to take a shit and Farid escorted him into the woods, y'know, just in case."

As Mike finished his sentence, the sound of fleeing birds and gunshots forced everyone to draw their weapons. Something wasn't right, the first shot wasn't one of theirs, it was a firearm. The last firearms Roy ever saw were in a museum, decommissioned decades ago.

"Shit, this never ends, does it?"

Roy nodded to the marine and walked toward the center of the group.

"Alright people, take defensive positions and get the wounded back in the Raven."

Once again, crates were stacked hastily to form a makeshift barricade, while others took cover behind rocks and tree stumps. Ben ran out of the tree line, catching his breath. Shortly after, an explosion illuminated the forest behind him, exposing a massive black shape.

"Fuck, it's big! It's BIG! Farid, he's… he's..."

The seaman didn't get to finish his sentence, as a massive black bear-like claw sent him flying. The beast was truly enormous, maybe four meters high. Its red eyes and white bone plates were the only thing keeping its silhouette clear in the night. The creature roared at the group of soldiers, standing on its hind legs. Mike stood next to Roy, his hands struggling to keep his rifle aimed steadily at the creature.

"I…I don't think our guns are big enough for that one."

"There's more of them! Look out!" said another marine.

He was right, more red eyes appeared in the tree lines. Three, five, a dozen. This wasn't going to end well. The tree lines weren't lighted very well, hiding the creatures behind shadows.

"Mike, fire off a flare, give us some light. Mike?"

"Right. Flare, on it boss."

Roy looked back at Ben. The man was lying on the ground, unconscious or worse. One of the new, smaller, canine creatures approached him. It raised its claw, but before it could deal the finishing blow, a shot to the head staggered it back. It wasn't dead, but Roy kept shooting while running for Ben, the adrenaline dampening the pain from his ribs.

"Open fire! Kill the bastards, light 'em up!"

* * *

 **0140 hours, Beacon Cliff**

Ruby was standing where Prof. Ozpin stood just weeks ago. Now, there was a large trench dug where the launch pads used to be. Ruby was looking down below the cliff, into the forest. There was a trail of broken trees leading into the aircraft, its shape still recognizable under the moonlight. It wasn't a bullhead, the cargo bay opened in the rear and not the sides. It wasn't sleek and grey either, it looked more like an Altesian craft with its angular shape. With her speed, Ruby reached the cliff first. It would take a few more minutes for her team to arrive, and even longer for Ms. Goodwitch and Prof. Port to arrive by air with medical teams. Ruby wasn't sure what to do, so she just watched through her scope at the crash site. Some people in armor were walking around, taking off their helmets and scanning their surroundings. Next there were a few in unfamiliar dark uniforms carrying some crates. Ruby noticed that all of them carried weird rifles. They were similar to Atlas's service rifle, so maybe they really were Atlesian special forces. Ruby was growing excited. She pulled up her Scroll and called her sister.

"Yang, how long until you get there? These guys look pretty serious. Atlas special forces maybe?"

Ruby could hear her sister running through the speaker. She wasn't expecting Weiss to answer, though.

"Did you just say Atlas specialists? Is there a woman with them?"

"Uh… yeah, I think so, a blonde, she's treating the wounded."

Weiss mumble something, not loud enough to get through the Scroll. This time it was Yang's voice.

"We're almost there Ruby, is there any Grimm yet?"

Ruby looked through her scope again. No Grimm near the crash site. A couple of the men wandered in the woods. One of them pulled down his pants near a bush.

"Eeeww gross!"

"Ruby?"

"Uuuhh, nothing, not seeing any Grimms."

"You sure?"

Ruby looked again and saw an Ursa coming up behind the man standing guard. Ruby didn't hesitate. With a smirk, she pressed Crescent Rose's trigger. The dust round impacted on the Ursa's claw, buzzing right above the soldier's head. The man had good reflexes, as he rolled out of the way when he noticed where the bullet went. He shouted something to his friend and fired his weapon while backing off. It wasn't a firearm, and the sound was unfamiliar. Ruby watched as the man shot the Ursa to death, but quickly realized that other Grimms were surrounding him, with an Ursa Major among them. She jumped off the cliff, hearing her sister's voice through her Scroll.

"Ruby? Ruby! What's going on? What kind of Grimm is it?"

"Ursai and Beowolves, lots of them, hurry!"

"We're almost there, leave some for us Sis'!"

With that said, she closed her Scroll and deployed Crescent Rose, running toward the lone soldier. With a cute yell, she severed in half the first Beowolf she encountered and looked around. To her horror, the man was gravely wounded in an Alpha Beowolf's claw, shooting his captor with one hand, and carrying a grenade in the other. The alpha, seemingly annoyed, was about to tear the man in two when the explosion engulfed both of them in a white purple-ish ball of fire, leaving nothing but a burnt crater in its place. Frozen in place after witnessing the man's death, Ruby barely managed to block a Beowolf's claw with her scythe. Focusing on the battle, she fired into the creature's face, killing it and giving her some breathing space. Shortly after, a yellow explosion followed by a joyful _Woohoo_ sent another Beowolf flying.

"Hey what did we miss, Sis?"

Ruby threw a sad look at the burnt crater, and Yang quickly lost her grin. They didn't have time to exchange words, as more yells, explosions and gunshots broke the silence. Ruby looked back at her team, her eyes full of determination.

"We need to get there, now!"

Ruby vanished in a cloud of petals, while an exasperated Weiss spawned a trail of glyphs while mumbling.

"Oh, you insufferable dolt, do you have any idea how painful those high heels are?"

* * *

 **0146 hours, Crash site**

For once, Roy's leadership wasn't taken lightly. The dark forest was soon brightly lit by the red flare in the sky, allowing everyone to pick a target. It was like a light show, a red background with bluish flashes and black shadows.

"Woooo! Take that you fucker!"

"Look out! To the left!"

"Shit, kill it! Kill it!"

"Fire in the hole!"

Roy could hear many yells in addition to the gunshots and explosions behind his back, but he couldn't afford to look back. He was dragging Ben back toward the group, firing his pistol at the dark wolf-like creature. It stood on its hind legs, like the giant bear-like creature. It was taller than a man, maybe two meters high. Its sheer size made it difficult to kill. His shots were clearly effective, putting some holes in its flesh and bone plates, but didn't penetrate deep enough. The sheer kinetic energy was keeping it at bay, which was enough. Now that he was back to the group, Roy dropped Ben and took aim. He breathed out and fired three shots into the beast's head. The first cracked the already damaged bone plate, the second went beneath the eye and the third blew off half of the creature's head, who dropped on the ground, its body disintegrating in small, black particles. To his surprise, there wasn't any blood or organs.

Roy didn't have enough time to think about it. He reloaded his pistol and looked around. The situation was bad, really bad. The largest creature was down, but so was half of the group. The wolf-like creatures were much faster and overwhelmed the defenders. When someone went to kill one of those that broke through, another would jump into the new breach. They weren't going to last long if this kept going. Roy couldn't accept this. Surviving an escape in high orbit only to be eaten by the local wildlife? That's embarrassing, to say the least! They were soldiers, damn it, how could it end like that? They mastered the power of the sun, weaponized gravity itself and a bunch of over-sized wolves was all it took to take them down?

Roy turned around and shot another creature in its mouth while it roared. The effect was quite spectacular, as its head literally blew up, leaving a gaping hole down its throat. There still wasn't any blood, though, which was worrying. The lieutenant, satisfied with himself, looked to his left and saw Mike lying on the ground, one of the creatures clawing its way through his torso. His eyes filled with hatred as the lieutenant fired again and again, each shot staggering the beast back until it rolled on its back. Roy stepped on its throat and emptied his weapon in the creature's roaring mouth. His pistol now empty, Roy threw it away and grabbed Mike's bloodied rifle. Before he could use it, however, a massive claw swiped him off the ground and sent him flying into a tree.

Dazed, the lieutenant tried to get up, but didn't have the strength to do so. He tried to reach for his weapon, which landed close by, but the pain from his ribs prevented him from doing anything. He was lying there, unable to do anything as he watched his team getting slaughtered. He didn't even notice that the sounds were slowly getting muffled when he suddenly saw a red blur flying across the battlefield, leaving cleaved monsters and red petals behind. When the blur stopped, Roy saw the most beautiful grim reaper he could imagine, coming straight from a comic book. A red-hooded girl wielding a massive red scythe, dressed in a Gothic-style corset highlighting her slim figure and with black hair whose color gradually shifted to red towards the tips. She wasn't alone, as he saw yellow explosions and white circles popping up everywhere. The red girl seemed satisfied with the chaos, and Roy felt his strength leaving him. THAT was their rescue team? And those monsters out there were the local fauna?

"Where the hell did we end up?" he said as he lost consciousness.


	3. Chapter 3: Welcome to Beacon

**Somewhere in the afternoon, Beacon infirmary.**

For the first time in the last twenty-four hours, Roy woke up peacefully. He slowly opened his eyes, the steady beeping of his heart monitor and the white ceiling indicating him where he was. Roy tried to get up, but instead of the expected pain from his broken ribs, he was stopped by a pair of hands.

"Don't try to get up, your body is weak enough as it is."

"Oh... you speak English... nice."

Roy's voice wasn't right. It felt rough, and his throat was aching a bit. Maybe he yelled a bit too much last night.

"English?"

The woman was nurse, probably in her thirties. She was smiling, and the uniform didn't look military. So, they were rescued, not captured. Or maybe it was an elaborate plan.

"Uh, never mind...Where...am I?"

This time it was a man's voice. Calm and soothing.

"You're in Beacon Academy's infirmary, young man."

The white-haired man looked important, but not intimidating. His coffee mug and cane probably helped, too. He was smiling slightly, perhaps he was taking pity? Roy couldn't waste too much time dazing off. He had a team, he needed a status report. Roy tried to get up again, only to be stopped by the nurse.

"The others, where…"

"I'm afraid but your group didn't fare well. Despite our best efforts, we could only save four of your friends. One of them is in the infirmary, just like you. The others were relatively unharmed and are currently given a tour by some of my students."

"Wait...Students...Academy… wh... what…"

"Yes, Beacon Academy. We train some of the finest Huntsmen and Huntresses here. Surely you've heard of the place."

Roy shook his head. The man didn't look upset. Instead he looked intrigued. Maybe it was an interrogation after all.

"What… what happened? What the hell did we run into?"

The man frowned. Perhaps the discussion wasn't heading the way he wanted. Perhaps whatever happened, he wasn't willing to tell.

"You've been through a lot, young man. Get some rest."

"Wait! Who are you?"

"My name is Professor Ozpin. I am the headmaster of this academy."

Roy fell back in his bed and looked around. The infirmary was pretty big, but mostly empty. He quickly found Eizan, still sleeping. There was an empty tray of food on the table next to him, so the man probably woke up before him. Roy looked back to the nurse, who was already gone to another patient.

"When are the others coming back? I need to talk to them."

"Oh, they probably still have plenty of things to see. I will contact Ms. Rose to inform them of your request."

"Okay, do that, I'll just… wait here… yeah…"

Roy slowly sunk into the softness of his bed, closing his eyes. Next thing he knew, it was already dusk, and some voices were calling him.

"Hey El-Tee, had enough nap time yet?"

That was Oliver, no doubt about that. Roy opened his eyes and saw half a dozen figures looking at him. Oliver was grinning like he just received a promotion. Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen anytime soon. The thought made Roy smile.

"Good to see you on your feet, sir. Well, awake I guess..." The blonde medic, Stella, was it? She was stern and saluting him, but seemed uncomfortable.

"At ease, soldier. Can any of you tell me what happened?"

Roy looked at the six figures. There was Oliver, Stella, and four girls he didn't know. He recognized the red-hooded one, looking a bit uneasy. Then there was a white-haired girl with a scar on her left eye, a black-haired one with a bow, and a blonde one with massive…

"Ahem" Roy looked immediately up, almost blushing from embarrassment. The red-hooded girl stepped forward and started talking.

"You, uuhh… landed… well, crashed in one of our training grounds, the Emerald Forest. Before we could reach you, you were already under attack by the Grimm, so we rescued you and brought you here."

She was smiling gently now, almost giving a thumbs-up. Roy smiled back and looked back at Oliver and Stella.

"Thanks for the heads up. What's our status? How's our gear?"

"Uuuhh, we're pretty much stuck here. Could go to the city, but then we'd be stuck there. Can't even buy a bloody pint."

"They say it'll be about a week until they dig up our Raven and bring it back here. In the meantime, I think Eizan and Hot Dog will investigate the local techs and see if they can fix ours."

"Oh yeah that airship of yours looks so weird, where did you come from? How does it fly? Can you teach me? Whatisitmadeof?"

Roy couldn't understand what the red girl was babbling about at this point. He saw her waving her arms and look at them with puppy eyes. Truly, an adorable sight if it wasn't giving him another headache.

"Ruby, stop! That's no way to treat a guest!"

That was the white-haired one. The voice of reason, then. Roy noticed that Eizan was up, with Stella helping him. Roy took a moment to process what he heard and sighed.

"Ugh… a week? That bad?"

"Not really, they just don't want to suspend classes for something that can be done on the weekend."

"Classes? They're sending in teachers?"

"Yeah, we're not in the most… conventional of schools. We'll show you tomorrow. They've given us a room, and they said you'll be out of the sickbay for dinner."

"Screw that, I'm leaving now." Roy tried to get up but couldn't feel the ground below him. As soon as he left the bed, he landed face-first on the ground. The fact that he was in a patient's gown and showing his ass was even more embarrassing. The red girl, Ruby, according to her white-haired friend, barely managed to suppress her laugh.

"Okay...dinner maybe…" Oliver grabbed him and put him back in his bed.

"No need to hurry, El-Tee. There's nothing to do around here anyway. See ya later, mate."

And with that, everyone left, including Eizan. How was he walking while Roy could barely move? The hell with that? After what seemed like an hour, the nurse came back in the room. According to the clock above the door, it was just five minutes, though. He tried to raise his arm to get her attention but gave up and coughed instead.

"What did you do to me? Why can't I move?"

"You were gravely injured. I had to activate your aura to give you a chance to live. Now your body is recuperating. Nothing to be afraid of, give it time and you'll be out of here for dinner. That is, if you stop trying to get out of bed."

Roy sighed, and gave up. He looked back at the clock, which said 6:35 p.m. What's dinner time? Seven? Eight o'clock? Roy looked around, searching for his clothes. He found his grey uniform nicely folded on the table next to him, with his purple beret stacked on top. Roy then realized that Oliver and Stella were also in their uniforms, not in their combat suits. Was it confiscated? Were they prisoners, and not guests? He had a few more questions for that Prof. Ozpin now, but as the others said, he had to rest.

* * *

 **Dinner time, Beacon's dinner hall**

Oliver, Stella and Eizan were sitting on a table with their food trays. Oliver and Stella were in their army uniforms, while Eizan was in his dark blue navy uniform. For all of them, it was essentially a glorified gray or blue jumpsuit with pockets and insignia. Everyone else around them was wearing Beacon's uniform and was eyeing them like some freshmen just got lost in a final year's lesson. Eizan broke the silence first.

"So, I heard Hot Dog's got a new job."

"Yeah, old man's gonna fly one of their birds until he gets his girl back. I hope he brings us some bottles with that pay of his."

Oliver was remarkably calm and joyful. Maybe he had a couple of swigs from a nowhere-to-be-seen source of alcohol.

"McKelley, are you ever going to stop thinking about ruining your liver?"

"What? A man's gotta drink up, especially after all the shit we've seen."

All three lowered their gaze, a sad look on their face. Eizan broke the silence again.

"How's the lieutenant holding up? He looked like shit this morning."

"He'll be fine, the nurse said he should be out soon. Whatever meds they gave him, it does wonders to broken bones and internal bleeding."

Oliver grinned and nodded toward the hall's entrance.

"Ha! Speak of the devil! Guy's already got a girl, too!"

Eizan and Stella turned around and saw the lieutenant, limping towards them with Ruby holding him up. His long hair was no longer tied in an intricate braid to fit in a helmet, but in a simple ponytail. Despite his young age, Roy still inspired authority. Maybe it was just the beret and shiny badges, though. Behind the two, the rest of team RWBY walked slowly, keeping their pace with the two leaders. After fetching some food, the group sat next to the soldiers. Both groups were eyeing out each other, wondering who would start the conversation first. Yang was the least patient.

"So, where's the last guy? The one with a funny name?"

"If you mean Hot Dog, he's probably in a meeting with your school's staff. Something about the new job he's got."

Roy stopped holding his head and turned to look at Stella in the eyes, clearly not happy.

"He did WHAT?"

"Found a new job, sir. Said he didn't want to, and I quote, sit in a hole with his thumbs up his arse until we restore the chain of command."

"Oh, that motherfucker..."

Technically, the pilot outranked him, which wasn't going to help to convince him to NOT do as he pleases.

"Language!"

Roy looked up at the voice, it was Yang again, not really happy about the curse words. Roy looked at the four girls more carefully. They were all teens, barely younger than him. Ruby seemed to be the youngest. She couldn't be older than sixteen.

"Right, sorry about that. I'm Roy, pleased to meet you."

Ruby looked at her team, then back at Roy, and cleared her throat.

"I'm Ruby, leader of team RWBY. This is Weiss, Blake and my big sister Yang." Each greeted the lieutenant, who was about to present his team, but remembered that he was the only one knocked out for the whole day.

"I… guess you already know my team, then, Ruby, leader of...ruby? Did you pick the name?"

Ruby rubbed the back of her head, slightly blushing.

"Eheheheh… not really, prof. Ozpin chooses every team's name."

"I see… say, I don't want to be rude but… how old are all of you?"

"Oh, I'm fifteen, Yang, Weiss and Blake are seventeen. How about you guys?"

"Umh, I'm nineteen, Oliver's eighteen and uuuhhh…" Roy looked at Stella and Eizan, who picked up the clue.

"I'm twenty, and Stella here is nineteen like the lieutenant."

Before anyone could add anything, a grinning Oliver acted before anyone could stop him.

"Are any of you ladies single?" Stella stabbed him with her elbow, but it was too late. Ruby was bright red, Weiss had a death glare, Blake was looking at her meal and Yang crossed her arms, mentally judging the young private. Roy sighed, and tried to defuse the situation.

"Forgive him, for he knows not what he does…" Their reaction, well, Yang's reaction, wasn't what they expected. She eyed Oliver and laughed before fist-bumping him.

"I see you don't waste your time, I can respect that. And yes, we're all single, for now" Yang winked at Ruby, who blushed even more.

"Yang! Don't say things like that!"

Roy couldn't help but laugh. It was a good change of pace, being back at high school. Certainly better than fighting for your life, that's for sure. Both groups got to know each other a bit more, before a certain Ms. Goodwitch called them in. Apparently, Ozpin wanted to have a chat with all five of them. The outsiders, he called them. In a way, he wasn't wrong. After a little walk to the central tower, which was surprisingly huge, the group reached the elevator. Ozpin's office was big, and pretty empty. Massive gears were clicking in the walls and roof, giving the impression to have a meeting in a clock tower and not an office. Maybe it wasn't that far off from the truth. Instinctively, the five "outsiders" stood at ease in front of Ozpin, with Ms. Goodwitch walking to Ozpin's side.

"Now, I think we all have plenty of question, so I'll begin. I am professor Ozpin, headmaster of this academy. This is Glynda Goodwitch, my assistant and a teacher here at Beacon. You are?"

"2nd Lieutenant Roy Anderson, Federal Army."

"Lieutenant Lawrence Spencer, Federal Space Force."

"Petty Officer Eizan Nakao, Federal Space Force."

"Private First-Class Stella Sternberg, Federal Army."

"Private Oliver McKelley, Federal Army."

"Mmmhh… except for Mr. Spencer, you all seem awfully young to be soldiers...And I have no memory of any federal army either. Tell me, are you familiar with the world of Remnant?"

Roy and the others looked at each other before the lieutenant gave Ozpin an answer.

"If that's how you call your planet, then I'm afraid the answer is no."

Hearing this, Ozpin sighed and sat back in his chair, this was going to be a long, long evening. The conversation then followed to the crash, then to the _Kashgar_ , then some explanation on the Grimm.

"Professor Ozpin, I can't help but notice that my men and I have been disarmed. I hate to ask this bluntly but, are we your prisoners?"

"Goodness, no, you are all free to leave. However, since you have no idea where you are, I don't think it would help you that much."

Hot Dog, no, Spencer, that was his real name, leaned and whispered into Roy's ear.

"He's not wrong, kid."

"May I ask where our equipment and our comrades are being… kept?"

"The bodies of your comrades have been transferred to Vale's Police Department. Once they are done with their investigation, they will be buried in the city's cemetery and their equipment will be returned here. You will, of course, be invited to the funerals. As for your equipment, Glynda had it stored in the school's locker room."

"I see… I apologize but I must ask you to return their equipment immediately. We are not keen on letting anyone have their hands on our tech."

"Of course. I will contact the police department and… arrange for their delivery here."

"Thank you, this is much appreciated, professor."

"Mr. Anderson, I must ask, what are you planning to do with all of this? After all, you are lost in foreign land. What would your orders be?"

Roy looked down, pensive, before looking at Ozpin. He took a long breath and explained his plans.

"We… weren't the only ones to reach the ground. Our ship's still out there, somewhere. And there were two other crafts with us. They're out there, too. We have to find them somehow and find a way back home."

"I see. And what would be needed to accomplish this goal?"

"For starters, we need our Raven back up and running, then, with some luck, they'll be within radio range. Otherwise, we'll have to look for clues and whereabouts. That's… that's not such a great plan is it?"

Ozpin chuckled and took a swig from his coffee mug.

"No, but it's a start. Most of my students here wouldn't even have a first step. You lived through some very tragic incident, and it is unfortunate that we meet our first… extraterrestrial guests in such conditions. Tell me, do you know what kind of school Beacon Academy is?"

Roy struggled to answer, the memories of the last day resurfacing. Stella took over, especially since she spent a good part of the day sightseeing.

"It's some sort of military academy, to train the best warriors and peacekeepers."

"Well, I hope our school's not nearly as strict as a military academy, but yes, that's the idea. Now, Mr. Spencer, here, has already agreed to join our staff as a senior pilot. Would you be interested in enlisting in my school? You'd be given a room and free meals for the duration of your studies. In addition, I may call some favors from the other headmasters to help you in your search."

Roy looked cautious, while Oliver stepped forward.

"Hell yeah, I would!"

Roy looked at Oliver, surprised at how fast he accepted the offer. He then took a deep sigh, closed his eyes and smiled. He looked back at Ozpin and offered his hand.

"We don't have much of a choice now, do we? We're already indebted to your students. You can count us in, sir."

"Please, no need to be so formal. I am merely a headmaster, not a general. I would appreciate if you could avoid saluting my staff as well. Of course, your existence as… outsiders will need to be kept secret. Given your names, you will be…. Ah, yes, you will now be team ROSE, Glynda will show you to your room. Welcome to Beacon."

As the group left the office, Ozpin turned back toward the window. His Scroll chimed, and the professor looked at the message. It was from Qrow. _Something happened. We have a new player._

"Looks like this will be an interesting year, indeed…"


	4. Chapter 4: Back to school

**Early morning, Beacon Academy**

According to the Scroll he was given, it was 6 in the morning. Classes would start a 9, so there was plenty of time. Roy stopped looking outside and checked his teammates. The others were still sleeping. They were all in their underwear, which was pretty much just a boxer and a tank top. Their room was pretty standard, four beds and some furniture. They didn't have anything to unpack, so all they had to store was their Beacon uniforms nicely folded on their beds. Roy looked at the open wardrobe, and his gaze switched from his Army uniform to his Beacon uniform. Not wearing a uniform was a pretty serious offense for an on-duty officer, but here, he wasn't known as 2nd Lieutenant Anderson. No, here, he was just Roy Anderson, leader of team ROSE. Besides, they weren't exactly in the Federation's territory anymore. After spending nearly five minutes in his boxers in front of the wardrobe, Roy finally dressed himself in his student uniform and tied his hair in a simple braid. Still uncomfortable, he decided to wear his beret as well and checked his Scroll again. It was nearly 6:20 now, another forty minutes and he'd wake the rest of the gang, there was some things that needed to be addressed.

Not willing to spend forty minutes idle, Roy walked all the way down to the locker room to check the content of the lockers they were given. As the team's leader, he had the override codes for all four of them. The inventory revealed that they had three combat suits, three rifles, a machine gun and two pistols. In addition, they had five plasma grenades, sixteen power cells for the rifles, a backpack-mounted generator for the machine gun and six power cells for the pistols and the suits. All in all, they didn't have much. Most of their original equipment would be in Vale's Police Department's custody, or in the forest. Still worried by the thought of being unarmed, Roy took his holster and his pistol, checked its power cell, and strapped it on his belt, making sure it was hidden beneath his vest. If it came to that, at least he wouldn't be caught with his pants down. By the time Roy walked back up to the dorm, it was already ten past seven. Stella was already awake, taking a shower in the dorm's bathroom. Her uniform was also missing from the wardrobe. The sound would probably save Roy the trouble of waking the rest of his team. After another ten minutes, the team was dressed and ready to listen to their leader.

"Alright, for starters, I'll make things clear between us. We're still part of the Federation's military, and I'm still your commanding officer, so you'll keep calling me sir. We may be barely older that the rest of the students, but let's try to stay professional."

"Uuuhh, that's not gonna work out, sir. Didn't Ozpin said to drop all that _Sir_ kinda stuff? Hot Dog's never gonna call you sir, either."

"Okay, fine, but as soon as we regroup with the rest of the crew, we'll go back to regulations, you all good with that?"

The rest of the team seemed to agree, and Roy sighed. Not even a day, and his orders were already questioned. Roy wasn't surprised. He read their files when he arrived on the _Kashgar_. Oliver barely finished his basic training before he got shipped here, and he enrolled straight after high school. Stella enrolled to get the Army to pay for her medical studies straight after high school, too. Eizan, well, Roy didn't know Eizan too much. He was one of the _Kashgar_ 's mechanics, always found him in a bunk or in the hangar. Never even talked to him before yesterday. From his behavior, he wasn't keen on following military regulations either, but wouldn't protest against it.

"Alright, second item on the list: We're going to be here for a while. If we're to work together, as a team, then we need to know each other. Oliver and I were shipped to the _Kashgar_ together, and I have the feeling you and Stella kinda know each other." Roy looked at Eizan, who looked at Stella, who cleared her throat.

"Weeeell, he did spend a lot of time in the infirmary, so…"

"Good then, that means we won't have too much trouble working with each other. Okay, I've wasted enough of our time here, let's go fetch some breakfast, we still have plenty of time to talk."

In the hour and a half they had left, the group talked about how they ended up in the military, why they chose their specialty, and other trivial things like their favorite show. With their Beacon uniform, they were almost blending in the rest of the students. That is, if they didn't run into an excited Ruby and her team.

"See? I told you they didn't sleep in! Let's go say hi!"

Ruby ran towards team ROSE and stopped a few feet in front of Roy, who put away his Scroll.

"Umh… hi there, Ruby, is there...something you need?"

"Oh, uuh, no, just wanted to say hi and, uuuhh welcome to Beacon!" Ruby was smiling in a way that made it more uncomfortable than it should. The other team members greeted each other, before Eizan resumed the conversation.

"News certainly travel fast around here."

"Well, Ozpin told us the news this morning and asked us to help you catch up a bit. I mean, you did miss six weeks of lessons…"

Roy crossed his arms and looked at Ruby straight in her silver eyes with a gentle smile, triggering some curious looks from her teammates.

"I see… Did he tell you anything else?"

"Well, he said you were from an Atlesian military school, and didn't arrive at the start of the year because you were away on a mission. We do have a meeting with him after this morning's classes, though."

Roy looked pensive, looking at the ground with a hand on his chin, before looking back to Ruby.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. Talking about classes, what's Combat Practice? Lessons about general tactics and best practices?"

"Oh, no, well, kinda. It's a few sparring matches, followed by feedback by Ms. Goodwitch."

"Ah, is that why you're all out of uniform?"

"Well, duh, I'm not going to fight without my combat skirt!"

"Combat...skirt… alright, whatever, let's just get some good seats."

* * *

 **0900 hours, Beacon amphitheater**

The amphitheater was big enough for at least three hundred people, but the class only counted about forty students. Most were sitting on the first rows of benches or standing in front of the stage. Once the bell rang, everyone focused on Ms. Goodwitch and listened.

"Good morning students. I'm sure some of you have heard rumors about newcomers. Let me put an end to them. Team ROSE, please, step onto the stage."

Everyone looked around and focused their attention on the four newcomers. Some started to whisper to their friends, but most stayed silent. Probably waiting for what they had to say. Getting to look at the other students while standing on a stage with a microphone was… more stressful than expected. Goodwitch resumed her speech, giving Roy some time to calm down. He noticed that team RWBY was teasing their leader again, who was blushing slightly. Roy relaxed and chuckled at the sight.

"Students, please welcome our newcomers from Atlas's Paulorth Military Academy."

Goodwitch then turned to Roy.

"Please, give us a brief presentation of you and your team."

Roy looked as his teammates, who nodded back. He then took a deep breath and looked at his audience.

"Good morning. My name is Roy Anderson. I am the leader of team ROSE. Here are my teammates Oliver McKelley, Stella Sternberg and Eizan Nakao. We are honored to join you at Beacon Academy and are looking forward to work with you."

Roy looked back at Goodwitch, who nodded. Taking this as a _Good enough_ , Roy walked back to the rest of the class, followed by his team. The crowd was louder now, but Goodwitch quickly silenced them.

"Now, do we have any volunteers for our first duel of the day?"

The crowd answered with silence and a few coughs. Goodwitch pulled her glasses up and sighted.

"Very well. How about you, Mr. Anderson?"

Everyone looked back at Roy, who shivered slightly. Refusing would not be well received, would it? Roy was suddenly very glad that he brought his pistol, even if he only had one cell. Taking a breath, he stepped back up to the stage and stood at ease, waiting. Goodwitch tapped a few buttons on her scroll, and Roy's status was displayed on one of the giant screens above the stage. There was a generic male face instead of his picture, something he needed to update according to the to-do list Goodwitch gave him yesterday. The crowd started to whisper again, until a hand rose up.

"Yes, Mr. Ren, are you volunteering?"

"I am."

"Good." Goodwitched tapped a few more buttons, and the second screen showed Ren's status. "Now that our participants are ready, the match may begin."

Everyone stood back, and the lighting in the room dimmed until only the stage was brightly lit. Roy could hear some more chatter behind his back but noticed that he couldn't see much beyond the stage. Well, it was an arena now, apparently. Roy saw a faint blue hologram rise up and disappear all around them. Roy then eyed his opponent. A teen in a green, elaborate vest and white pants. He carried no visible weapons, and instead assumed a martial art guarding position. Well, now that would be interesting. Roy was well trained in hand-to-hand combat from his Ranger and officer training, so maybe he did stand a chance.

"So, I didn't quite catch your name, mister…?"

"Lie Ren, but you can call me Ren."

Roy smiled, and raised his fists, assuming his own guarding position.

"Alright Ren, you can call me Roy. Let's give 'em a good show."

As if Goodwitch was listening them, a loud beep signaled the start of the match. At first, both of them simply circled around, judging each other's moves. Ren then suddenly launched himself at Roy and tried to knock him off the ground with a swipe from his legs. Roy jumped up and tried to punch Ren in the guts. Ren dodged and tried to strike Roy in the back, but Roy rolled away. Both were catching their breath, circling again for another run.

"Well, that's some fancy moves you got there."

"And I can see Atlas trained you well."

Roy chuckled, and went on the offensive. He tried to send Ren flying with an uppercut, but he dodged the strike. Roy used the opportunity to grab Ren's right arm and tackled him to the ground with his right leg. Before Roy could land another hit, Ren jumped away, and Roy saw a pair of custom, green machine-pistols emerging from Ren's sleeves. Roy instinctively ducked out of the way and drew his own weapon. The bullets peppered the floor where he stood and went all the way into the crowd. Well, they would have, if they weren't stopped by the blue holograms. Energy shielding, then. That was good to know. When Roy looked back at Ren, he was running towards him, his pistol-mounted blades at the ready. Hesitating for a split moment, Roy backed up, knelt down, aimed at Ren, and shot him in the leg. Ren tripped forward due to the momentum and slid all the way toward Roy. The lieutenant then pressed his knee against Ren's back and his gun against Ren's neck, and heard a loud beep. The room's lighting returned to its previous state, the shields went down and Goodwitch emerged from the shadows. Roy flicked the safety of his pistol and holstered it, before giving a hand to help Ren up.

"That was a nice fight buddy, looks like I win." winked Roy.

"Students, as you saw, Mr. Ren's opponent stepped out of the designated arena. In a tournament style duel, this means that the official may call the match."

Roy was dumbfounded and looked at his feet. He noticed that when he backed up, he did walk past a blue outline. He then looked up to the giant screens and was surprised than Ren's aura gauge had reached the yellow zone, somewhere towards 30%, while his was down to 60%. Confused, he looked back at Ren, who could already stand on his two legs and looked back a Roy with a bow.

"It seems not. It was a pleasure fighting you."

Roy chuckled, and gave him a lazy salute.

"Likewise. Next time won't be so easy."

Both men then returned to the crowd, but team ROSE had plenty of questions. Ren was shot with a LENR pistol, but remained unscathed? A single shot to an unarmored body would lead to severe burn, if not much worse. Even a pistol carried enough kinetic energy to put an armored man down. Oliver and Stella got close to Roy, while Eizan looked at Ms. Goodwitch to take some notes.

"Well, that was interesting" whispered Oliver. "Never seen someone getting shot and walking like nothing happened. Did you see that pink shield of his?"

"What? So, they all have personal shielding, is that what you're saying?"

"There's no reason for him to be unharmed otherwise. It's like he isn't even in pain, and look at his clothes, they're intact." added Stella.

"Mmmhhh... I think we're gonna have to dig up this aura stuff. I thought it was just some medical thing. If we can't shield anything smaller than a ship, and they can outfit any kid with a personal shield, we need to know how. Also, did you see those shields on the stage? That could be really useful."

The trio then joined Eizan and remained mostly silent to watch the next fight. They'd read Eizan's notes on Goodwitch's debrief later.

* * *

 **Several duels later.**

According to the two giant screens above the stage, the match pitted a certain Jaune Arc against a certain Cardin Winchester. Again, the room's lighting dimmed until only the stage was brightly lit, so that everyone could focus on the fight. Well, it looked more like a beating than a fight. Jaune didn't land a single strike, whereas Cardin kept on bashing that poor Jaune fella. Sloppy tactics, too much aggressiveness, inaccurate strikes… Roy could name a number of reasons why Jaune was losing. When he compared that to how Ruby and her friends saved them that night, the lieutenant could only wonder how much of a skill gap this school would accept. A loud beep signaled the end of the match and brought Roy back to reality.

"That's enough. Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match. Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now, please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack, or when it's better to move to a more… defensive strategy."

Goodwitch then talked about some festival, which seemed to cheer up everyone but team ROSE. Might be something important they missed. However, before they could ask Ruby and her team, the bell rang, signaling the end of the class. Ruby talked to Jaune about something and ran off, probably to her meeting with Ozpin. Apparently, Ren was part of Jaune's team, along with a red-haired girl and a ginger one. Roy watched both teams leave the amphitheater and checked the time on his Scroll. Lunchtime. Well, he knew where Ren's team would go. Roy looked back to his team, who was debriefing all they've seen.

"Alright people, it's lunchtime, let's go get something to eat. I think I found us some people to talk to."

"Already? You're getting popular, El-Tee." said a grinning Oliver.

"Shut it. Like I haven't noticed your conversations with those girls."

"Well, they did ask about you first."

"Come on boys, let's go!" said Stella waving at Roy and Oliver.

* * *

 **Lunchtime, Beacon dining hall**

Roy and his team approached Jaune and Ren's team, who were sitting on one side of an otherwise empty table. Roy cleared his throat and spoke first.

"Hey, umh, mind if we join you?"

Jaune took a moment to answer, seemingly lost in thoughts.

"Oh, sure, go ahead."

Each team was now seated in front of each other, eyeing each other out until the red-haired girl started the conversation.

"Hello again, I'm Pyrrha, this is Ren, Nora, and our leader Jaune."

Each member greeted each other, and the usual talks to get to know everyone followed.

"So... there we were...in the middle of the night…"

"It was day…"

"We were surrounded by Ursai…"

"There were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!"

"Two of 'em"

"But they were no match! And in the end, Ren and I took them down and make a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"

At that point, Ren just sighed.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now…"

Pyrrha noticed that only Jaune wasn't listening, instead playing with his fork in his plate.

"Jaune, are you okay?"

"Uh? Oh, yeah, why?"

"Looks like something's been bothering you. A lot." answered Roy.

"Guys, I'm fine, seriously, look!"

Jaune's smile was even more awkward than Ruby's. Roy was about to say something until a maniacal laugh caught everyone's attention. It was Cardin and what was probably his team, apparently picking on a girl with rabbit ears. Oliver leaned and whispered to Roy.

"Uuuuhh, are those real?"

"I don't know, I guess? How the hell should I know?"

Pyrrha brought them back to the conversation. She was describing several cases of "practical jokes" that sounded a lot like bullying. One of those picked team ROSE's interest.

"I didn't land far from the school!"

"Wait, those are rocket-propelled lockers?!" asked a dumbfounded Eizan.

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask…"

"OOH! We'll break his legs!"

"Guys, really, it's fine. Besides, he's not only a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everyone."

"Ow, that hurts!"

Everyone looked back at the rabbit girl, whose ear was in Cardin's fist. Roy whispered to Oliver.

"Well, I guess they ARE real, huh."

"Man, what a crazy world we live in."

"Atrocious, I can't stand people like him." commented Pyrrha.

"Yeah, you're not the only one." added Stella.

The rest of the lunch break was spent asking and answering questions. Since they didn't want to blow their cover, they couldn't ask about that Vytal Festival, but they did get some information about aura. The fact that they didn't know about aura was a surprise to team JNPR but was quickly explained by the fact that they were supposed to be a new kind of military unit. One that could be able to face the Grimm without the use of Aura, but of technology. Of course, there were a lot of holes in that explanation, but team JNPR didn't seem to notice. As both groups left the hall, Roy's Scroll chimed. He looked at the screen and noticed that it was a message from Ruby. _Can we talk? Meet us in our dorm after dinner._

"Interesting" mumbled Roy to no one.


	5. Chapter 5: Not from around here

**Evening, team RWBY's dorm**

Roy decided to go alone, letting his team debrief everything about aura, dust and those fancy shields while he discussed whatever needed to be discussed with Ruby's team. Oliver complained, but agreed that some things needed to be investigated and fast. Roy was in his army uniform, his hair loose underneath his purple beret. He could easily be mistaken for a girl at that point. He knocked twice on the door and waited. Shortly after, a silver-eyed girl in her pajamas opened the door. Roy looked surprised at first, but quickly disregarded that detail. She looked behind him, and seemed intrigued.

"You, uuhh, you didn't bring the others?"

"No. I figured their presence wasn't mandatory. Besides we have a lot to talk about between us, so I told them to start without me. May I come in?"

"Oh, uh, sure, yeah."

When Roy walked in, he suddenly felt oppressed by team RWBY's inquisitive looks. He was also impressed by the look and feel of the room. To put it simply, it was an organized mess. Especially the bunk beds. Ruby then cleared her throat, causing Roy to look at each member of team RWBY, who looked like they had a lot on their mind.

"Is... uhhh something wrong?"

"No... I mean, yes, I mean, we're not sure…"

Ruby seemed embarrassed, Blake looked cautious, Yang looked curious and Weiss, well… Roy wasn't sure if Weiss was annoyed or angry. Maybe both. Roy then remembered that they met Ozpin at noon and sighed. The lieutenant took a chair and looked at the girls.

"Alright. I think I know where this is going. Has to do with what Ozpin told you, doesn't it?"

"Well, uuuhh, yeah…"

Ruby scratched the back of her head. Before she could continue, Weiss took over.

"You're not from Atlas, are you?"

"Eh, I'll be honest, I don't even know what Atlas is."

"Ugh, unbelievable, and Ozpin expects everyone to believe his little forgery?"

"But you ARE in the military." commented Blake.

"Yes, I am. 2nd Lieutenant Roy Anderson, Army Rangers."

"Rangers? What's that? I never heard of it." asked Yang.

"Is it some kind of super-secret agent thing?"

Roy chuckled and smiled. Yeah, she definitely had a cute side.

"No, Ruby, it's not a super-secret agent thing."

No, that'd be the Shadow Division. If it exists. Maybe. Before he could wander in his thoughts, Roy took his beret and looked at the insignia.

"Rangers are a part of the Federal Army. Well, on paper at least. We're dedicated to the protection of all mankind. While we are tied to the chain of command, we have the freedom to act independently if we wish to. We're the guardians of peace, the ones you send when there's an evil dictatorship or terrorist group to take down."

"Huh, that sounds a lot like Huntsmen. Except the army part. Oh, if you're in the army, how comes you and Stella have long hair?"

Roy could almost swear he saw Yang grin before she played with her hair, hiding her face.

"We're allowed to do whatever we want with our hair as long as it fits in our helmets without hindering our capability to fight. For facial hair though, that's another story."

After a short moment of silence, Weiss resumed the conversation.

"You said you didn't know of Atlas. Do you know of any kingdoms?"

"Except for Vale, no, not really. I guess Atlas is one, but that's about it."

"And given your equipment, I doubt that you belong to Vale's military."

Ruby then looked saddened, or concerned, perhaps.

"So, you're...you're really not from around here, are you?"

Roy stopped smiling and looked at the floor.

"No. No, we're not. I'm not going to lie, we're not even from Remnant."

Weiss's voice was filled with uncertainty.

"So, you're... an alien? You certainly look human to me..."

"Mmph, funny you should say that. As far as I'm concerned, I'm as human as I can be. You on the other hand, I'm not so sure."

"What? What do you mean?"

Weiss didn't know if she should be offended or worried, her facial expression a messy mix of fear and anger looks.

"Well, we know we come from Old Earth. We've got the records, we've got the cultural background. You? We don't have anything on you. Maybe you're human. Maybe you're not. All I know is that the Federation and its neighbors emerged from humanity's only recorded attempt at interstellar colonization."

"Old earth? Is that a metaphor?"

"No, Old Earth as in, Earth. Terra. Big Old Blue, Solar system. Ring any bells?"

The room fell silent for a moment, the four girls eyeing each other out like they just got told something utterly incomprehensible until Ruby spoke again.

"Soooo, how did you end up here? I mean, before the Emerald Forest."

"Well, that's quite a long story. I'll try to keep it simple."

Roy then told them all about the _Kashgar_ , the ambush, the artifact… It would all be a fairy tale to them, to hell with all the classified bullshit. Once he was finished, Roy couldn't decide if they looked at him with dread or with pity. Perhaps both. The fact that, out of the 526 souls on-board the _Kashgar_ , only five reached safety, and only forty or so could still be alive, certainly did a number of the team's morale. Yang was the first to talk again.

"Well, I'm… sure more of your friends made it, right?"

"Mmmh, we'll see. They hunkered down in the most heavily armored part of the ship, after all. Until we're ready to go out there and look for clues, there's nothing we can do about it."

"How can you be so calm?" asked Blake, her voice betraying her look of empathy. She didn't ask that for him, she asked for herself. Perhaps a story for another time.

"This isn't the first time I lose people I care about. And this time, there wasn't much I could do to change the outcome. Now, all I can do is make sure my team stays safe and move on."

"That's very honorable of you but, are you sure you're okay?" Weiss didn't seem angry anymore, but genuinely worried.

"Listen, I'm a soldier. More than that, I'm an officer. I may be a few years younger than I should be, but I earned those medals. I earned those stripes. I'm not allowed to break down when my team needs me."

"But you're at Beacon now. You're safe. It's okay to not be okay." Ruby seemed genuinely concerned as well. After all, she did see his team getting slaughtered first-hand. She didn't know them, but she knew Roy did.

Roy then looked at his Scroll. It was late, nearly midnight. "Yeah, well, let's talk about that another time. Now, if that's all you needed, I think it's getting late."

"Wait! We also need to tell you. Since Ozpin wants to make sure that your origins stay hidden, he wants us to give you a few lessons on Remnant. That way you won't blow your cover at the first discussion you get involved in. We're the only ones aware of your true origins in addition to Ozpin, Ms. Goodwitch and Prof. Port."

"Okay. Fair enough. He wants to avoid mass panic, I can work with that."

Ruby got up and opened the door.

"Well, if… there's anything you need, you know where to find us, eheh."

She was definitely uncomfortable, laughing nervously to try and make things easier.

"I know, Ruby, I'll call you if I ever need something."

* * *

 **Saturday morning, Beacon Academy's Bullhead hangar**

Team ROSE was standing in front of the hangar Ozpin indicated, all of them in their military uniform. After a little while, Spencer, or Hot Dog, Roy didn't really know how to call him anymore, joined them. He was wearing Vale's pilot vest on his navy jumpsuit and was smoking a cigar.

"So, how's Ozpin treating you?"

"Meh. Bullhead flight crash course and some simple delivery jobs. I have to say, I've never seen such a sluggish craft being mass produced before."

"What kind of fuel does it use?"

"Not ours, unfortunately. Our tech's way too advanced for these people. Who the hell uses firearms nowadays?"

"They do have some nasty surprises. Don't let your guard down."

"Whatever kid. Even if we fix our bird, I don't know how to refuel it. They don't even have nuclear scientists."

"Well, they have electricity. We would at least have access to a decent-ranged radio and a way to recharge our power cells."

Hot Dog only grunted in agreement. After four days in Vale, they were all finally going to retrieve the rest of their equipment and most importantly, their Raven assault craft. After another fifteen minutes of talk about their days at Beacon, a couple of Bullheads appeared in sight, with their prize towed between them. The dropship was in one piece, but the landing gear and engine nacelles were damaged. Roy nodded towards the craft.

"Eizan, think you can fix this?"

"Mmmhh... Just make sure I get all the parts I need and we should be good in a few weeks, a couple of months at worse."

As the Bullheads landed their precious cargo in front of the hangar, Hot Dog turned to look at Roy's team and laughed.

"Hahaha, it's gonna take more than a small crash to keep my girl down!"

"Alright, let's grab all our gear, we'll store what we can in our lockers, and put the rest in our dorm. We'll get the rest from the cops this evening. Funeral's tomorrow at 1400."

Now they had a proper armory, and enough ammo to last for a lengthy expedition. They also recovered their survival kit, which included the distress beacon, some portable radios and a solar generator, among other things. Eizan and Hot Dog inspected their aircraft, listing every component that would need a replacement. The list was long, and most components would have to be handcrafted, but the most complex systems were unharmed. The ship's miniature fusion drives were still operational, as well as its armament. Down to three pair of hands, transferring and organizing their stockpile of weapons and equipment took nearly four hours. In the meantime, Eizan and Hot Dog repaired their craft's radio transmitter using Bullhead spare parts and some ingenuity. For the rest, Bullhead parts wouldn't do the job, but Roy knew exactly who to speak to. A certain red Grimm Reaper. Roy chuckled by just remembering Oliver giving her that nickname. In the past three days, they spent nearly every lunch break with team RWBY and JNPR. By now all four of them had their aura unlocked, but not their Semblance. Roy took his Scroll, searched for Ruby's number and stopped before pressing the call button. They'd spend four hours walking between the Bullhead maintenance park, the locker room and their dorm. They were all hungry and tired. Besides, it could wait. Roy put away his Scroll and took out his radio.

"All call signs, this is Rose Actual, radio check, over."

"Rose Three, copy, over."

"Rose… ah fuck those call signs, over."

"Eheh, yeah, we copy, over."

Roy sighed. Oliver wasn't gonna follow regulations. Again. And Hot Dog wasn't taking him seriously. Again. Luckily, he still had Stella and Eizan remaining somewhat professional.

"Alright guys, I get it. How about lunch down in the city? Hot Dog, up for treating your comrades to a meal? Over."

"Hey, hey, hold up, I haven't been paid yet!"

"Well that sucks."

"Alright, back to the mess hall everyone, over."

"Copy, over."

"Got it."

"On our way."

* * *

 **Afternoon, Beacon Dorms rooftop**

"So, think you can make the shot?"

"Tsk, you're the only one of us who can't."

"Aw, come on El-Tee, that's just mean."

"Then stop bothering me and let me focus."

"Alright, suit yourself. Range: 425m, wind: 4kph south-west."

Roy took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. 425m away, in the garden outside of the dining hall, a row of empty soda cans grew one can shorter. Both men were lying on the rooftop of the dorm block, with Stella, Hot Dog and Eizan leaning against the wall behind them. Oliver was holding a pair of spotting binoculars while Roy held his rifle, its handguard resting on a pile of books and its barrel slightly distorted by the heat haze.

"Volltreffer. That's the second round you lose, you sure you want to keep playing?"

"You just got lucky, that's all. I'm not gonna back off, I ain't bitch-made."

Stella snickered and smiled. "Sure. I think Ms. Xiao Long would beg to differ." Oliver shivered at the thought, while the others laughed. Yesterday, she gave him a ride with her motorbike. Wouldn't be anything serious, really, just a stroll in the city on a Friday evening. Except that apparently, having a driver's license in Vale doesn't mean driving responsibly. Roy remembered Oliver's terrified _Never again_ look when he got back to the dorm, and the rest of the team just spent the rest of the evening mocking him and talking about team RWBY and JNPR. Their laughing session was interrupted when a silver-eyed girl opened the rooftop's door. Roy and Oliver stood up, and everyone nodded at Ruby to greet her.

"Uuuhhh, hi, whatcha doing?"

"Just some target practice. Friendly competition. Wanna join in?"

Ruby suddenly became very excited, waving her arms and hoping like a rabbit.

"Oh yes! Yes! Yes! Can I really use your gun? I never touched a military-grade weapon before, this is awesome! What kind of gun is it?"

As if he didn't want to be a part of this mess, Hot Dog shook his head, tapped on Eizan's shoulder and whispered something in his ear.

"Okay guys, have fun. Eizan and I are going back to the Raven."

Oliver looked at Ruby, then at Roy, and finally at Stella, who nodded towards the door.

"Yeah… no way I'm gonna win against TWO sharpshooters, I'm out."

"Same here, I might be better than Oliver, but both of you… It's not gonna happen."

"Pfff, you're no fun... Alright guys, see ya."

And with that, Roy and Ruby were alone on the rooftop, with a loaded LENR rifle and a pair of spotting binoculars. Ruby's eyes were glimmering at the sight of the weapon, and Roy remembered her question.

"Ah, yeah. This is a "Gladius" LENR rifle, standard issue service rifle of the Federation."

"What's Lenir? The name of the guy who invented it?"

"Oh, no, LENR is an acronym. Stands for Low Energy Nuclear Reaction."

"Uuuuuhhhh so it's like, an atomic gun?"

Roy chuckled at the thought. Ruby's eyes were glued to the rifle he was holding. Yeah, she's a nerd. A cute one, but still a nerd. And she knows what _Nuclear_ means, this ought to be interesting.

"No, not exactly. It's essentially a plasma railgun."

"A what?"

Roy flipped the rifle and pressed a button. The cheek pad moved and revealed a compartment in the gun's stock. A small cylinder extended outward.

"See this? That's the hydrogen core. One of these is good for about eight thousand shots."

"Wooaw, so you pretty much never run out."

"Not that easy." Roy then closed the compartment and flipped the rifle again. This time he took out a large block resting in front of the trigger guard and showed it to Ruby. "The power cell only lasts for thirty-six shots. We do have bigger ones, but that model's a universal standard. The same we use in some suits and various equipment."

"Soooo… how does it work? What kind of dust uses electricity?"

"We don't use dust. It's… complicated. Maybe I'll show you later. Short answer is, we use the hydrogen core to create a tiny ball of plasma, and then we discharge some capacitors in two parallel rails to accelerate it to nearly 45km/s."

"Coooool. Can I try it?"

"Not so fast, Reaper. A single shot from this baby can blow off a limb. If you want to pl… to use it, then you're gonna have to show me how good of a shot you are."

Ruby then instantly deployed Crescent Rose in its rifle configuration. Roy looked at Ruby and her weapon and couldn't help but whistle.

"Damn, that's a big fucking gun. How can you even use this thing?"

"Oh, that's easy. It's lighter than it looks, and I use the recoil to move around. What am I shooting at?"

"But… Okay. Sure. See that line of soda cans down there, next to the dining hall?"

Ruby took aim while Roy grabbed the binoculars. Ruby switched from super-excited to super-focused so quickly it felt unnatural. It seems that Huntsmen training was no joke, after all.

"Yup."

"Okay, I want you to…"

Roy never finished his sentence, as Ruby fired her Crescent Rose. The sudden change of pressure due to the high caliber weapon left Roy's ears ringing for a little moment, but Roy didn't look away from the row of soda cans. Ruby's bullet hit the can in a heartbeat, sending fragments flying into the dirt.

"Alright, that's… good enough. Here, now try this. Mind if I check out your Crescent Rose?"

"Oh, umh...Yeah, okay. I've never actually… let anyone have it before."

"Well, I'm honored, Lady Rose." said Roy, bowing with a grin on his face. Ruby blushed slightly but quickly focused on her new toy. "Now, be careful. Because the round's so fast, there's pretty much no bullet drop to compensate."

Ruby nodded before inspecting the new rifle in her hands. It was steel black, with an integrated scope in the sleek carrying handle. It was a fairly normal adjustable 1-4x scope. The most striking feature was the lack of moving parts. Ruby spun the rifle in all directions, with Roy commenting whenever her gaze stopped at a particular component. In comparison, Crescent Rose seemed... over-engineered. The weapon was bulky, but surprisingly light, given its size. Most of it was made of aluminium, with some components made of steel or titanium. It didn't seem extremely efficient, since it was a bolt action, but each component was carefully designed to fulfill its purpose. Roy knew it was also a scythe, but he didn't try to find out how that worked. The scope was tiny for a sniper rifle, its magnification was stuck at x4. That meant Ruby was a really good shot, maybe even better than him. His inspection also revealed that the weapon shouldn't be as effective as it was. Perhaps it only truly shines as an aura-infused weapon. Roy looked up at the sniper-scythe's owner. She was waiting for something. Right, ammo. Roy gave her the power cell he removed earlier and stepped back. With a determined look, she then aimed the weapon towards her target and flicked the safety off. Ruby's professionalism with a weapon felt unnatural to Roy. She was only fifteen, but was already holding the weapon better than Oliver, and the look in her eyes reminded him of some of the best sharpshooters of his class. Her haircut seemed carefully designed to allow her to use a scope, her black hair locks showing tints of red near the tips. Before Roy could daze off any further, Ruby fired. The bluish flash briefly illuminated her face and brought Roy back to reality. Ruby then returned to her usual joyful state.

"Woooaaa, this feels so weeeiiirrdd. There's almost no recoil, and it hits instantly! And the sound! You don't need earplugs or aura, it's incredible!"

"Pretty nice, huh?"

"Pretty nice? That's the coolest thing ever! You have to show me how it works!"

"Uuuuhh…"

"Pretty pleeaase?"

Roy sighed, then remembered that he needed something from her.

"Fine. But I want something in exchange."

"Like what?"

"I need a favor from you. You designed and built Crescent Rose, haven't you?"

"Oh, uh, yup, that was all me! Hehe."

"Good. I need some… custom-built components."

"Ooh, what for?"

"Our aircraft. We can't fix it without those parts. It's for the landing gear and the engines, mostly."

"So… you're letting me see your airship? Is that really okay? It seemed pretty important."

"Well, it's not going to help us if it's not operational. Consider yourself lucky. You'll have access to some top-of-the line, next-generation military hardware. Just listen to Eizan and Hot… and Spencer, do as they tell you and everything will be fine. Besides, you let me have Crescent Rose for a moment, thought I should let you have something special as well."

That, or maybe he was desperate enough to fix his dropship. He could've called Ozpin, but something's off with the man. No way he'd let the authorities have their hands on that tech, either. Having a fifteen-year-old mechanical genius working on a space-faring aircraft wasn't exactly reassuring, but that was the solution he could trust the most. Especially with repairs that don't require any high-tech components. Yeah. Nothing to do with that adorable smile and those beautiful silver eyes. No, not at all.


	6. Chapter 6: Forever Fall

**Sunday, 1400 hours, Vale cemetery**

Team RWBY stood in front of the eight gravestones. They didn't really know any of them, but they knew it was important for team ROSE. All four were all lined up in their military uniform with Spencer behind them.

"Ready! Aim! Fire!"

All four members of ROSE fired in the sky.

"Ready! Aim! Fire!"

They fired again.

"Ready! Aim! Fire!"

And again.

The gunshots were the only sound in the entire cemetery. After they fired their third volley, team ROSE and Spencer then saluted their fallen and just stood there. Team RWBY remained silent, unsure of what to do.

"They were good people." said Roy. "I just wish we could have saved more of them."

"I saw you run at that beast. You did everything you could. Don't let yourself down, kid."

Spencer held his hand on Roy's shoulder like a father would comfort his son. He served for fifteen years in the Space Force, death was no stranger to him. The Federation was by far the largest unified government, but it wasn't the only one out there. Other nations bordered the region, and piracy was still exceedingly present on the frontier. The last war was over eighty years ago, but the destruction never truly stopped. Losing an entire ship, however, was quite the feat. Spencer wouldn't panic, of course. As a pilot, he had his own share of disasters locked away in his closet. Nevertheless, the man was tense, worried. Roy could feel it, see it in his brown eyes. Of course, the senior officer knew how to deal with it, how to keep his emotions in check for the others sake.

"I still can't believe it's just us left…"

Stella held her rifle close to her, almost hugging it. She joined the Army eight months ago, and spent nearly two of those months on the _Kashgar_. She knew most of the crew and liked a lot of them. She was one of the ship's nurses in addition to one of the marines' medics. She wanted to save people, to protect the innocents while her brothers and sisters in arms drove the threat away. In that aspect, she didn't save anyone. She barely protected herself and Eizan. She stayed in the Raven while her friends were dying outside, she never came back to drag the other wounded inside. She felt guilty and powerless, small tears running down her cheeks.

"Well, us here anyway. Engineering's a tough nut to crack, I'm sure they're fine in there."

Eizan has always been a pragmatic man. Comes with the job, he often says. He lost a lot of good friends in the last few days. He was stationed on the _Kashgar_ for a year and a half before the incident, and he knew a lot of the crew. Roy knew that Eizan took a big hit, he looked fine, acted fine, but he spent most of his time working. Working to forget, to keep his mind on other things. It'd work for a while, but Eizan would end up exhausted, forced to rest and then everything he suppressed would come back. The funerals forced him to confront his feelings. The mechanic knelt down in front of one of the gravestones and stopped resisting. Team ROSE and Spencer quickly joined him and mourned their fallen, unbound by military tradition.

In the corner of his eye, Roy saw Ruby open her mouth, but whatever she wanted to say, she didn't do it. She hesitated and closed her mouth, looking with remorse at the gravestones. She told him what she saw that night. Death isn't exactly rare in a family of huntsmen, but it still hurts to see someone you want to protect die. She told him about her mom, Summer. She told him about Farid, how he killed himself seconds after she arrived. She told him how, when she got to the crash site and saw the bodies, she hoped that their aura saved them. She hoped that she got here in time, saving everyone, being the hero.

Ruby looked down, looking like a child that just got scolded. She didn't know these people, and she still regretted not saving them. Roy wanted to comfort her. To comfort everyone, actually. To tell them it wasn't their fault. But he was nineteen, he didn't know how. He wasn't even sure if they couldn't have done better, maybe they could have saved more if they stayed in the Raven for a little while longer. Still, he had to say something. Anything. He needed to give his team hope, to remind them of their objective. He walked away from the graves, turned to face everyone and took a deep breath.

"We can't change what happened. We can't bring the dead back to life. But what we can do, is change what happens next. We can save those of us that are still alive and help those in need along the way. We can, and we will, because that's our duty, and something tells me that this... all of this is only the beginning of our adventure."

* * *

 **Sunday evening, team ROSE's dorm**

The rest of the day was spent on maintenance and repairs. They mourned their fallen, now they had to move on. Eizan gave Ruby the first blueprints for the components he needed. He wasn't expecting them anytime soon, so she stored it in her room. Jaune was nowhere to been seen, to the dismay of his partner Pyrrha. Right now, Roy didn't care. It wasn't his problem, he didn't even know what it was about. All he wanted right now is to think about something else. Think about how to beat Ruby at her ninja game for example. The people of Remnant were in a pre-atomic society but had made some technological leaps that rivaled or even surpassed the Federation. Ruby's game console and the Scrolls for example. It uses some kind of hard light tech for the touchscreen while the console had a holographic screen. On the other hand, their vehicles still used combustion engines as expected of a pre-atomic society. Ruby's joyful scream brought Roy back to reality. They were in team ROSE's dorm, Ruby in her pajamas and Roy in his jumpsuit. The console's screen said _BLAZING NINJA WINS_.

"Yeaaaaaah, Queen Ruby officially kicked your butt!"

"I want a rematch!"

Roy wasn't gonna let a fifteen-year-old humiliate him, no way.

"Naahh, I'll just whoop your butt again."

"Try me."

"Okay big guy, that's YOUR death warrant."

This time he'd focus on the game. Now he had a basic understanding of his character and the controls, he wasn't going to let her win again. Well, he'd try anyway. After only a few minutes, his health reached 30% while Ruby's was at 70%. He was going to lose again.

"Queen Ruby is invincible!"

"Hell no!"

As Roy focused more intensely, he felt something click in his mind. He didn't know what, but something, somewhere, got triggered. It's as if his instinct instantly got sharper. No, wait, that's not it. The screen rate dropped. Ruby moved slower. And he was seeing ghosts, predictions. He could see where the ninja would be, like a cheat. Something's wrong. His fingers were slower, too. Like if his body couldn't go any faster. Countering Ruby's move was easy, nonetheless. In five moves, he dodged and struck her twice, dropping her health to 58%. He heard Ruby talking, but it was incredibly slow. Yeah! That's it. Everything was in slow motion. Why? What happened? Ruby was surprised at his newfound reactivity, if he heard right. Now THAT would be quite difficult to explain. Easier to say you just cheated. Ruby's health reached 7% now, one last strike and he would win. As if the slow motion understood that it wasn't necessary anymore, everything came back to normal just before the console displayed _SOARING NINJA WINS_. Satisfied, Roy looked back at Ruby, who watched him with curiosity and awe. He suddenly felt very tired, like if he pulled an all-nighter.

"Hey, did you cheat?" asked Ruby. She doubted the answer would be yes. Her curious look probably meant that she had some idea of what happened.

"No, I don't even know how… or where to get them. Sore loser." Roy stuck his tongue out to tease Ruby even further. "Although, I do admit that something happened."

"Well, you did kinda glow purple for a moment."

"That's...interesting. Any idea what that means?"

"Maybe. Feeling tired?"

"Actually yes, very. I think I'm gonna call it a day and go to bed soon."

"Mmh... then I think it might be your Semblance."

"My… what? How?"

"It's okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow if you want. We do have a field trip, so I should go to bed, too."

"Yeah, alright. The others should come back any minute now. It was fun playing that game."

Roy and Ruby stood up and walked to the door. Roy opened it and was almost sure that he saw Jaune walk past them. At least Pyrrha won't have to worry anymore.

"Well, good night Ruby. We should try a friendly competition on that console of yours. I'm sure Oliver would love it."

"I don't think Weiss and Blake would like it very much. Well good night, Roy."

"Oh, by the way, I think I saw Jaune outside."

"Oh, cool, I should go talk to him. See ya!"

Roy closed the door and went to bed. He tried to understand what happened to him just minutes ago. He knew he had aura. They all did now. The manifestation of their soul, that they could use to generate a protective force field or to enhance the physical properties of an item. It was quite taxing to use as well, so they restricted its use to "training" and "absolutely necessary" only. Roy was the only one who activated it subconsciously, like in his duel against Ren. With training, it got better, he could control it. Now he had his "Semblance" to deal with, if Ruby was right. Oh yeah, Semblance, as in, the special superpower you could have if you worked on your aura. That was a lot to take in, and Roy was too tired. He was fast asleep when the rest of his team returned from their regular evening training.

* * *

 **The next day, Forever Fall forest**

The Forever Fall forest deserved its name. The trees were all red, and all had their leaves falling, even if it wasn't fall. Team ROSE was between teams RWBY and JNPR, their full combat suits and rifles contrasting with the group's more casual combat attire. Ms. Goodwitch was leading the group deeper into the forest.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."

"Well that's reassuring." said Oliver through the suit's radio. The words were meant to his team, but the others could hear him through the helmet, they weren't in a vacuum.

Goodwitch stopped and turned around.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun!"

"Three hours to fill four jars? Yeah, we're not going to be very productive today, are we, El-Tee?"

"Let's get the job done first and figure out what to do after, alright?"

"Fine by me." said Eizan. As a mechanic, he wasn't used to the combat suit he was wearing. It had integrated life support and a multi-spectrum visor with a HUD throwing so much information at his face that he wasn't sure what it was all about. For the amount of protection it gave, the mobility was surprisingly good, but it wasn't perfect. It was like a tuxedo, you can't wave your arms around all you want. Once they had their four jars, team ROSE stayed with teams RWBY and JNPR, talking about their aura, their Semblance, how they got to Beacon… Most answers were vague. A lot of private things that they didn't want to talk about. Maybe something to do with that Vytal tournament, too. It was fine for team ROSE, because even a little bit of information is better than no information at all. Their discussion was cut short by a huge roar. It was a familiar sound, one team ROSE hoped they'd never hear again. Ruby reacted first.

"Did you guys hear that?"

Before anyone could answer her, team CRDL ran past her.

"Ursa! Ursa!"

"What? Where?" asked Yang who literally grabbed one of them.

"Back there! It's got Cardin!"

Pyrrha dropped her jar, shocked.

"Jaune!"

"Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch!"

Pyrrha drew her weapons and looked back at Ren and Nora.

"You two, go with them! There could be more!"

Roy looked at his teammates. That roar was very familiar…

"Alright, Pyrrha's right, get back to the rendezvous point, set up a perimeter. I'll check it out."

Roy, Ruby, Pyrrha and Weiss arrived at the scene. Cardin was getting tossed around by an Ursa Major. The same kind that led the other Grimm to the crash site that night. Jaune arrived just in time to block the Ursa's claw, keeping it in place. Roy aimed his weapon and Weiss prepared to strike with her rapier, but Pyrrha stopped them both.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Please."

Jaune was actually fighting the beast back. He landed a couple of hits before the Ursa hit him. He went flying a few times but charged at it again every time. Something was wrong, his shield wasn't high enough. As if Pyrrha heard his thought, she extended her arm and both the shield, and her arm grew a dark aura around them. Jaune's shield rose high enough to block the Ursa and Jaune decapitated the beast. Roy shrugged.

"Well, that's handy."

"Uh… what?"

"How did you...?"

"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs. My Semblance is polarity."

"Whoa, you can control poles..."

"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism!"

"Magnets are cool, too..."

Roy snickered and started to walk back to his team. Oh Ruby, never change. Roy's training kicked back in and the lieutenant reached for the radio.

"Be advised, Ursa threat has been eliminated. No sign of other hostiles, but stay on your guard, over."

"Oliver here. Perimeter's secured, got nothing but leaves moving, over."

"Copy. I'm on my way, out."

* * *

 **Evening, Beacon Dorms**

Team ROSE was sitting on their beds, debriefing the day. It had become a habit, to spend about half an hour every evening to talk about all that happened, agreeing on what needed to be done, what meant what and other things. They were in an unknown land after all, one that seemed to have both the same and different laws of physics for example.

"So, Jaune's not such a loser after all."

"Yeah, only needed a little push. Heard he's quite a good leader when it comes to group tactics and improvisation."

"Hey El-Tee, maybe you should give him a couple lessons."

Roy shrugged and smiled.

"I might as well teach all of you lots, why waste the occasion on a single guy when I could train twelve."

"Oooh, already getting a big head, El-Tee. Didn't know you wanted to be a General!"

Eizan and Stella laughed at Oliver's remark.

"Alright, enough about that. I'll seriously think about it, though. Not a bad idea, McKelley. Back to logistics, we're gonna need more clothes, this is getting tedious."

"Couldn't agree more." said the medic. They only had two sets of student uniforms and their jumpsuit, which also meant only three sets of underwear. They had to spend half their nights doing laundry. It wasn't even a week yet, and they were already tired of it.

"Eizan, how's your suit?"

"It's… fine, I guess. It's the right size, I just need to get used to it. Is there a way to clean up the HUD?"

"Oh, yeah, we probably left the default settings after the reboot. I'll show you how it works."

"Okay, so we're good combat-wise, and need more clothes for every day's life. Anything to add? And no, we're not buying beer, Oliver."

"More school supplies, we're almost out of paper and ink. And we still need those spare parts. Could salvage some suits, but that won't be enough. I don't know where to get those alloys otherwise."

"Okay, I'll see with Ruby for that one. And no, if we can avoid it, don't salvage anything. Never know when you'd need it."

Now that Oliver and Eizan were finished with their grocery list, Stella took over.

"I think we need more documentation about Aura and Semblance. Team RWBY and JNPR told us a few things, but it's still pretty vague. We have no idea what long-term consequences these could have, or on what basis they work. It might as well be magic for all we know."

"Mmmh, you're right. As they say, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. We need to know what we're up against. Prof. Port has been a good source of information, maybe we could get some references from him. Speaking of Aura and Semblance, anything to report?"

Some coughs and uncomfortable looks. Oliver spoke first.

"Weeeeell, we're getting better. We're not vegetables after training anymore, so that's good, right?"

"Yeah, but… I'm training with you, I noticed that. I was speaking about other… things. Anything unusual, really."

"Ummhh… Where are you getting at, Roy?"

Roy sighed. No sense hiding that from them.

"Well, I found out what my Semblance is, apparently. I'd say it's about time manipulation, I can see things in slow motion and predict them a few seconds into the future."

"Bullshit. That's way too OP. Increased speed or strength, I can get. Magnetism? Okay that one's weird. Bullet time AND prediction? That's just too much."

"I can't actually prove it, since I can't control it, but that's what Ruby seems to think."

"Okay. Let's assume that's true. How did you find out?"

"Umh… playing video games…"

And then began a very long conversation for the lieutenant.


	7. Chapter 7: Another eventful week-end

**Friday afternoon, City of Vale**

Somehow, there wasn't any classes for the freshmen this afternoon. No one complained though, and quite a lot of them crammed themselves in the airbus to the city. Among them was team ROSE, with a somewhat vague shopping list and a few addresses. They had a limited budget, but they had a budget nonetheless. Ozpin, in his great generosity, gave them a monthly allowance each. They were all students, so it wasn't much, but it was a start. After a month and a half, it was enough to get some decent clothes and school supplies, they hoped. With their first paycheck, they solved their underwear and school supplies problem. Now, they had a little more freedom. They wandered around after leaving the airbus station, intrigued by all the decorations. Apparently, the Vytal festival wasn't just any festival, it was THE festival. It wouldn't start until the next semester, but the city was already setting up the signs and banners. Oliver whistled.

"They sure know how to throw a party down here. Kinda reminds me of Ratification Day back home."

"Mmph, it sure does… Okay, back to our objective. First stop is the supermarket. Shouldn't be hard, we need some simple stuff. Second stop is the clothing store. Can't go above 2500 Lien, make 'em count. If we get a chance, we locate some place to get alloys. A gunsmith or something."

The trip to the supermarket was a simple one. It wasn't large, but it had what the team was looking for. They also used the occasion to buy more things they missed like shampoo or booze. They'd have to figure out how to smuggle that into their dorm afterward, but Oliver made some… compelling arguments. After their first errand, they had three bags worth of groceries to carry with them, and slightly less money that planned. It didn't change the rest of the plan, though. The group walked to their second destination at a reasonable pace. Ruby and Yang didn't give the most accurate description for the shop and the way to get there. After a while, the four soldiers reached the clothing store, still wearing their Beacon uniform. It was like any regular store, in front of a large plaza. The shopkeepers were a couple of old ladies. One of them was a Faunus with dog ears.

"Oh, hello young ones, how may we help you today?"

"Hello, ma'am. We're just browsing, we don't really know what we're looking for."

"Maybe I could help with that."

Everyone looked back to the rear of the shop. A tall brunette with a black beret and sunglasses was eyeing each member of team ROSE head to toe. She was almost as tall as Roy and Eizan, wearing a long, cocoa-colored shirt with a dark brown waist cincher. She also wore long, dark brown trousers with ribbons on the left side and a brown belt with bullets, complemented by a pair of dark brown, high-heeled leather boots with buckles. Her accessories counted more bullets than an ammo box and her handbag actually looked like one. Her hair had a lock of orange, akin to Ruby's tints of red near the tips. She focused her gaze on Roy and walked towards him. Stopping a few feet away, she nodded to his beret and smiled.

"Hi, I'm Coco. I like your style, stern, serious, but not extravagant. Wouldn't have picked that color, though."

"Yeah, well, good thing you're not me then."

"Relax, didn't mean anything."

Roy cleared his throat and extended his hand.

"Let's try that again. I'm Roy, pleased to meet you, Coco. These are my teammates Oliver, Stella and Eizan."

"Nice to meet you. Teammates, uh? So you're team ROSE then, is that right?"

"Already heard of us?" asked Oliver. He was both kinda proud and kinda cautious. Things aren't necessarily great when a superior officers know you by name.

"Well, who hasn't? Between you and team RWBY, you first years are quite full of stories."

"I...see..."

"So, don't you have anything better that the school's uniform?"

"Well, that's pretty much why we're here. Said you could help?"

"Mmmhh… I could, yes. In fact, I think it could be pretty fun. Four live models to toy with."

Coco lowered her sunglasses and winked while Oliver leaned in and whispered.

"I don't think this is gonna end well…"

"Let's hear it. What do you suggest?"

"I'll start with you first."

"Hey, wait, wha-"

Coco grabbed Roy and dragged him to the back of the store. The owners didn't seem to mind, Coco must REALLY be a good regular customer. The rest of his team looked at each other, then at the owners, and then shrugged before wandering in the shop.

"Eh, he'll be alright. Why don't I have girls dragging me like that?" said Oliver.

Back in the backroom of the shop, Coco and Roy stood in front of a mirror with a large supply of clothes behind them. Coco had already tossed him some brown cargo pants, black boots and a light blue shirt.

"Here, try these out."

"How do you know my size?"

"Trust me, sweetie, I'm an expert."

As they walked back into the store, Coco looked for the rest of team ROSE while Roy went to one of the dressing rooms. Roy saw Coco escort Stella to the backroom in a way that reminded him of rebels sending prisoners away to execute them. The lieutenant quickly dismissed that thought and tried on his new outfit. Coco was right, everything was his size except the boots. He was wearing the only shoes he had, which were the armored, sealed boots of his combat suit, so it explained why Coco misjudged the size. Somehow the outfit matched his beret, was both comfortable and utilitarian and was within the budget by a fair margin. Only issue was that it was a bit cold, maybe a jacket or a coat would fix this. By the time he got out of the cabin, Stella and Oliver weren't in sight. Eizan was wearing blue jeans, grey shoes and a yellow top underneath a brown bomber jacket. The mechanic nodded to Roy.

"Not bad, Coco sure knows her stuff."

"Yeah, surprisingly. Still need a jacket though, where did you get that one?"

"Back there, left alley."

Roy browsed through the alley but found nothing to his taste or within his budget. Disappointed, he returned to the dressing room just in time to see Stella come out. He couldn't help but whistle. She had her long blond hair loose, wearing a slim white shirt underneath a short grey jacket. She then had a black cincher not too different from Coco's, a blue French beret and some beige trousers and brown shoes. Stella's outfit highlighted very nicely her figure, and reminded Roy that her school and army uniforms were not very feminine. She looked at her teammates and put her hands on her hips with a mocking grin.

"Given your faces, I'm guessing this is far more attractive than my service uniform."

"Well… yeah… it...it looks very nice, actually. It's not too revealing like Yang's, either."

Coco then walked in on the trio.

"Of course, it does. A woman needs to be elegant, revealing outfits won't do her justice."

Roy looked back at Coco and then at the backroom.

"Where's Oliver?"

"I may have gone a bit too crazy for him."

"Oh boy. McKelley, you alright in there?" shouted Roy.

"Yeah, I'm a badass!"

Oliver walked out wearing a grey t-shirt with flames embroidered on the front, a black jacket with chains on the left shoulder, a grey jean with chains and knee pads and his combat boots. That was definitely a style Roy didn't consider.

"Ooookaaayy. Hey, Coco, do you know if they got any other jacket or coats back there?"

"Oh, sure, what do you have in mind?"

"Something practical, usable in both hot or cold climate, wide enough to wear armor, slim enough to stay mobile."

"Mmmmhhh, not too demanding, are you?"

She turned to the owners.

"Sunny, do you still have some of those dusters you sold last season?"

"Oh sure, honey, they're on the third shelf."

"Thanks, you're the best."

After a few moments, Coco walked back with a brown duster in her hands. It was made in textile, not leather, and had a darker brown lining that could be removed when it was too hot. It was long, almost reaching twenty centimeters past his knees. Feeling the somewhat heavy coat on his shoulders reminded Roy of his dress uniform. With luck, maybe he'd get to wear it again. It was practical, it could be attached to the legs to avoid flapping around, had many pockets and the sleeves were wide enough for a suit, without the lining. Given its length, hiding weapons underneath wouldn't be too hard, either. It all seemed fine until they got to the cashier. Coco's advice was good, but expensive. All of their clothes costed more than twice their initial budget. Coco noticed their sad faces after the Faunus cashier told them the price and took over.

"You freshmen are all the same. Let me guess, didn't save up enough?"

"Yeah, something like that…"

"Okay, monthly allowance?"

"Yup. Pay you back next month?"

"You better, you don't want to see me pissed."

"Okay, here's my number, in case we don't run into each other again. And thanks again for helping us out, I think we would've picked much worse."

And much less expensive, he thought. Barely more than a month and they were already over budget. They did look less conspicuous, though, so that was an improvement. And damn, Stella's hot now. Roy never noticed how attractive she was before, their military and school uniforms making her figure rather discreet. Eizan and Oliver seemed satisfied, too. They didn't want to ditch anything to reduce their expenses, and because it was all so expensive, that's probably going to be their only civilian outfits. When team ROSE left the building, it was the early evening, late enough to return to the dorms before the airbus line goes into night schedule. Coco stayed with them for a little while, revealing that she was a second-year student at Beacon Academy, that she was leader of team CFVY, that they were in her favorite clothing store where she spent most of her free time and that she grew quite close to the shopkeepers. The girl was really talkative, but not annoying. Not yet, anyway. Before embarking on the airbus, however, team ROSE went to eat some noodles and Coco left the group to join her team.

The airbus was incredibly slow, it took nearly an hour to get from Vale's commercial district to Beacon. Back on any world of the Federation, the MagLev network would take you at least six hundred kilometers further. By the time team ROSE arrived, it was already night. They walked at their own pace, each member carrying two bags full of things. On their way to the dorms, they noticed Blake walking with a blond guy with an opened shirt, showing his muscular abdomen to the world. On a closer inspection, Blake didn't have her bow anymore, but cat ears. It was no surprise to team ROSE, since their thermal sights revealed them long ago, but it was the first time Blake ditched the bow. And the blond guy had a tail, too. As soon as Blake realized that team ROSE was looking at her, she sprinted towards the airbus station, the tailed blond keeping the pace.

"Off they go…" said Oliver. "And I thought they were all single."

"And I thought you were more interested in Yang." said Roy, winking.

"W… well… she's hot. She's really hot. And she's pretty, too. But… damn, she's crazy. And I'm the one saying that."

All four of them laughed. After a few minutes, they reached the dorms. Team RWBY's door wasn't entirely closed, and they could hear them talking. As the others walked past to reach their room, Roy pulled out his Scroll and looked at the time. It was only 21:23, so it wasn't completely out of the ordinary for the four girls of team RWBY to talk, but the tone they used made it feel like there had been a fight. Something to ask about for tomorrow, if they're still there. Roy returned to his dorm without inquiring any further on the subject. The four soldiers showered, brushed their teeth, stored their new outfits and supplies and went to bed, just like any evening. It was, at first, a bit strange to return to a life of college student, but after several weeks, they got used to it.

* * *

 **Sunday afternoon, Vale's commercial district**

Earlier today, Roy didn't get to see team RWBY, so he sent a text message to Ruby while the four soldiers trained their Aura and jogged around the campus. They also had a few homework to do, and a few exams to prepare. Still, Ruby replied fairly quickly, even if she was nowhere to be seen.

 _"Is everything ok?"_

 _"Yeah, why?"_

 _"Heard a fight last night."_

 _"Oh, don't worry about it."_

 _"Ok, tell us if you need anything. btw, how's it going with those components?"_

 _"Finished the first one, will give it to you for lunch."_

 _"Cool, see ya in the mess hall."_

Roy didn't think much about the issue and sent his team to fix the Raven. Well, it was pretty much cleaning and painting at this point but cleaning every part for maintenance would already take more than a day. Stella and Oliver cleaned up the interior and the hull while Eizan, Hot Dog and himself took care of the more delicate components. Ruby gave the first component to Eizan, a small torus made of conductive alloy. Roy remembered something about the magnetic locks in the landing gear from his days in his military academy. The rest of the day was spent on casual tasks until, on the evening, RWBY decided to ask team ROSE a favor. And that's how Roy and Oliver found themselves in the commercial district again, searching for Blake and her mysterious blond friend while Eizan and Stella held the fort. Unfortunately, team RWBY had no better idea than to just scream "Blaaaaake" over and over again. Well, mostly Ruby and her sister. Roy and Oliver were following, still not familiar with every part of the city. Weiss, on the other hand, seemed more reluctant to do anything. Probably something about the fight from yesterday.

"Weiss, you're not helping!"

"Oh, you know who might be able to help? The police!"

"Uggghhh… Weiss…"

"It was just an idea…"

"Yeah a bad one…" muttered Ruby.

Roy tried to defend the heiress but didn't know the full story. Besides, Ruby seemed angry enough.

"We could've asked for a search & rescue and not an incarceration…"

"I doubt that she needs any rescuing." answered Weiss, coldly.

"Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions." added Yang.

"I think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right!"

"And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today!" said a joyful, feminine voice. The entire group turned around, Roy and Oliver reaching for their guns instinctively. Yang told them that since they were Huntsmen-in-training, they had the right to carry weapons. Coming from Yang, it sounded extremely dangerous in the lieutenant's head, but also quite practical. And since both Weiss and Ruby confirmed that fact, it seemed legit enough. As a result, they both had a rifle hanging on their back. Roy also had his sidearm holstered on his belt. It ended up being a habit, as he never really goes anywhere without it, one way or the other. As Roy pulled out his pistol, he realized that he was just startled by a girl with orange hair and an innocent-looking smile.

"Aaaah! Penny! Where did you come from!?"

"Hey guys! What are you up to?"

"Blake went AWOL last Friday evening, we're looking for her."

"Ooooh, you mean the Faunus girl!"

"Yeah, that one."

Team RWBY blinked and looked at the three like they were aliens. Well, two of them were, actually, but still.

"Wait, how did you know that?"

"Uhh, the cat ears?" said Penny while pointing above her head.

"You didn't know? We've got thermal sights, we saw the cat ears." said Roy while pointing to his eyes.

"What cat ears? She wears a... bow..."

"She does like tuna a lot..."

"So, where is she?"

"Well that's the whole point of Absent Without Official Leave, girl. We don't know." said Roy.

"Yeah, she just ran, and we have no idea where to." added Ruby

Penny gasped and grabbed Ruby, who smiled uncomfortably.

"That's terrible! Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate!"

"Uh, that's really nice of you, Penny, but we're okay! Really! Right, guys?"

Roy looked around, but Yang and Weiss were nowhere to be seen. Roy smiled back to both girls, unsure of which side to take.

"Well, we do have a lot of ground to cover. The more, the merrier."

The lieutenant and his sidekick decided to split again to cover more ground. It was getting dark now, and they somehow ended up in the industrial district. After a moment, Roy felt his Scroll vibrating, pulled it out and opened it. It was a call from Hot Dog.

"Hot Dog? Is there something wrong?"

"Hey kid, I got a lot of unmarked contacts on EM/IR heading towards the city. See anything?"

"How many?"

"Five, coming from the west, moving slow. Bullheads I'd say. I would take off and paint them with LADAR to be sure, but, you know..."

"Yeah okay, thanks for the heads up, Hot Dog."

Roy closed his Scroll and looked at his teammate, who looked curious.

"We've got company. Let's rally the troops."

Roy called Ruby, who answered immediately.

"What is it? Did you find her?"

"Ruby, what's to the west of the industrial district?"

"Uuuhh, nothing but docks and warehouses, why?"

"Well, they've got visitors. Unmarked, if it's about Blake, maybe it was a kidnap job."

Before he could add anything, the conversation was interrupted by an explosion.

"Oh, no…"

"Let's go! Ruby, call the police!"

"On it!"

Roy closed his Scroll and drew his rifle. Oliver did the same.

"Let's move it, double time!"

* * *

 **Sunday evening, industrial docks**

The closer they got, the more gunshots they could hear. If Blake was on her own, it wouldn't have been that noisy. That wasn't her style. Unfortunately, Roy didn't really have time to think of alternate scenarios, as they arrived at the scene in just a few minutes of sprinting. By the time they arrived, a giant green laser beam sliced in half two Bullheads, their wrecks flying above the two soldiers' heads and crashing in the water. They took cover behind a cargo crate and looked around. Several bandits in a white and black uniforms were down, either dead or unconscious. They also saw Ruby standing in the middle of a rooftop, looking at the scene. Next there was Penny dragging another Bullhead into some cargo crates while some white guy with a bowler hat boarded a fourth craft. Roy lined up a shot and shot him in the back, but the ramp closed too fast to see the result. As the two remaining Bullheads flew away, Roy called Hot Dog again.

"So, found what it was about?"

"Yeah, Bullheads, three down, last two are leaving, see where they're going?"

"Damn son, what kind of gun did you bring?"

"Wasn't me. Where are they going?"

"For now… middle of nowhere. They either have a carrier or are using a decoy route. Bullheads don't have that much range."

"Damn it… Okay, call me back if there's anything new, we're returning to base, out."

Roy hang up and looked around. Ruby was down on the ground now, approaching Penny, Blake and their blond friend. The lieutenant smiled and looked at Oliver, who had his gun leaning on his shoulder. In the background, police sirens marked the arrival of the police.

"So, mission accomplished?"

"Yeah, score one for the good guys, I guess. Let's get back to Beacon before something crazy happens again."

"Oh, yeah, after that sprint I'm sooo going to the mess hall."

"Oliver, it's half past seven, by the time we get there it'll be closed."

"Yeah, but we've got guns."

"They've ALL got guns, it's not gonna help. Let's just get some instant noodles back in the dorm or something."

"Fine, you're the boss, El-Tee."

The lieutenant chuckled. In the distance, Ruby looked at them and Roy gave her a thumbs up. The four of them were approaching a stack of wooden crates to sit on. Roy looked back to Oliver and resumed the conversation.

"Am I?"

"Oh, don't worry, we may not show it right now, but during a fight? If you say jump, we ask how high. Well, maybe not Eizan, he's not a grunt, but you get the idea."

"Yeah, thanks, Oliver."

"No problem, dude. You're a cool guy, I'm sure we could've gotten a much worse CO."


	8. Chapter 8: Remembrance, part 1

**Author's note:**

Hey everyone, it's been quite a ride, uh? So, as you guessed, I wrapped up RWBY Volume 1. This is only the beginning, though, so don't worry. Please don't hesitate to review and say what you thought about this story so far. As for the only questions I received, well, spoiler alert:

Yes, Remnant is Earth, millennia after the Edelweiss left it.

The Kashgar was ambushed by something linked to the Grimm, but not quite Grimm itself. Think of it as a more advanced version.

Also, as you probably guessed, part of the story revolves around finding the _Kashgar_. It won't happen anytime soon, but it will happen. And it won't be abandoned. If you want to suggest an OC to be part of the surviving crew, don't hesitate to PM me.

* * *

 **Four years ago, city of New Calypso, planet Maia**

Roy was lying in bed, playing _The Last War_. It was a global strategy game in VR, where you incarnate leaders of the Resistance against the Swarm, an alien race bent on exterminating human life. Of course, you wouldn't really see what it looked like since most of the game was spent in a Combat Information Center, so the action was mostly blue and red blips shooting each other. The essence of the game is cooperation, as each player in this MMO commanded his or her own ship and troops. He commanded a small Peterson-class frigate, with a crew of 126 people, all bots. He only started playing the game for about a month and recently upgraded his ship from the starter corvette to his frigate. It'd be years before he could get a carrier of a dreadnought, and even longer to get the leviathan from the new DLC.

Roy was in the middle of an operation, guiding his squad of marines throughout a derelict wreck to salvage. As he sent a man towards the machine shop, an alarm took his attention elsewhere. It wasn't coming from the game, but from his VR set. It was 8 o'clock, time for dinner. Roy recalled his troops and logged out, leaving his VR set on the bed.

His room was a twelve square meters box with grey walls and a window. Inside was a regular bed, a desk with his computer and some closets filled with clothes and random stuff. He got out of his room and walked down the stairs. In the living room, his younger brother and his little sister waited while his parents finished the meal. Soon, his older sister would come down, too, and they would share they regular family dinner like every day. His older sister, Amelia, was studying to become an engineer and spent a lot of time in her room for that. His younger siblings, Josh and Jessica, were still in middle school. His father, Michael, was one of the town's councilman while his mother, Diane, was a doctor. They watched the news as they cleaned up after eating. Something about taxes, angry people, poverty lines… Roy didn't really care about politics, he was just a regular fifteen-year-old kid, playing video games and chasing girls. Well, mostly playing video games, actually.

His father's phone rang, the ringtone breaking the silence in the living room. It was his work phone.

"Hello? Anderson here. Rémi? What's going on?"

Before Roy could hear anything more, his father retreated in his office, leaving the rest of the family as clueless as him. When his father's work phone rang at this hour of the day, it was never a good thing. After a few moments, he stormed out of his room, grabbed his coat and reached the front door. He turned to face his mom and said something. It was too far for him and his siblings to hear, but given his mom's face, it wasn't good. A car honked outside, and his father left. So, there was already a government car waiting outside? What could be possibly happening? Before he could ask any question, his mom joined them in the living room.

"Listen kids, we're going to stay a little while at aunty Graham's place, pack up your things and bring them down here."

"Mommy? What's going on? Why did daddy go?" asked Jessica.

"He's just gone to work, sweetie, nothing to worry about. Go get your plushies, and don't forget your toothbrush!"

Following this, no one asked any questions about it. They all knew something went wrong, something they probably wouldn't understand, so they just focused on packing their things up. They loaded everything in the family's SUV and took the road. Aunt Graham lived in Belisar, a dome city just a couple thousand kilometers to the east. The only way there is either the maglev or the spaceport, and apparently mom opted for the latter. It was late, and no one was on the streets, absolutely no one. As they reached the spaceport, Roy saw one of the largest crowd he ever saw. They reached the terminal for flights to Belisar and bought their tickets. They waited for three hours in the middle of the night before they could check in their luggage. Josh and Jessica fell asleep once they reached the boarding area. The spaceport had never been this crowded before, it was like half the city was trying to leave. Luckily for them, mom bought first class seats, so they got to board first. Or they would have, if it all went well. Amelia was well ahead with Josh and Jessica, but Roy needed to go to the bathroom and was lagging behind when it all went to shit. An explosion in the main dock left a burning wreckage instead of a commercial passenger ship, and everyone panicked. It wasn't everything, either. There were gunshots, too. Everyone rushed to board the ship they were waiting for. The crew tried to make it into an orderly queue but quickly gave up and prepared for launch. Looking far into the crowd, Roy saw his siblings getting in. Reassured, he looked around, looking for his mother. She was trying to reach him, fighting against the crowd. Suddenly, gunshots stopped everyone. They were close, very close. Roy looked in the direction everyone was looking and understood. A dozen armed men were standing there, their faces hidden beneath balaclavas.

"In the name of the Maian Liberation Front, we are taking control of this spaceport and all flights are to be inspected by Liberation Fighters."

"Screw you! You don't own shit!" yelled a man in a business suit. He was promptly shot in the head, the red and pink mist slowly raining back on the floor as the terrorist leader resumed his speech.

"Lack of cooperation will be interpreted as collaboration with our corrupt government. Now, all of you sit down and shut up."

As the crowd obeyed, they realized that the ship they were trying to seize closed its airlock.

"Scheisse! Ficko, Riley, get that door opened!"

Two of his goons ran toward the door, but it was too late. The ship ripped itself off the boarding tube, small black impacts appearing on its side as the rebels tried to shoot it, and flew away. The thrust sent the two goons flying back towards their leader, who swore again. Before Roy could think of anything, one of the goons dragged his mom out of the crowd.

"Well, look at that, we've got ourselves a nice, valuable hostage. I'm sure the council will keep the Feds out of the way now that we've got Ms. Anderson."

"My husband would never let you have it your way. We don't negotiate with terrorists."

"Oh, but we're not! We're the Liberation Front! Half of the planet is taking arms with us. This isn't about terror, it's about power, power to the people!"

Before the leader could add anything more, another goon ran into the group.

"Boss, boss! We've got company! They deployed the Guard faster than we expected, these merdeux are retaking the port!"

"That's okay, we've got a bargaining ship now."

Roy felt the rage boiling in his blood, but he knew he didn't stand a chance. Instead, he waited for an occasion to strike. The terrorists took hostages to defend themselves and waited for the Guard soldiers to arrive. It didn't take long. One of the soldiers yelled through his radio.

"Put down your weapon! Put them down, now!"

"Easy there, cowboy. Look what we found!" answered the rebel leader.

"Release the hostages or you will be fired upon!"

"Now, now, no need to be harsh. After all, in a few hours, WE will be your leaders."

"Keep dreaming, asshole!" yelled another soldier.

While both parties were arguing, Roy sneaked his way to one of the goons, waiting for an occasion to do something. No one was looking at the crowd, both parties locked with each other. Someone grabbed Roy by his arm. The young boy looked back and realized that it was a woman, one of the would-be passengers. Her eyes were wet, she was on the verge of crying, and her arm was trembling. She was afraid, everyone was, and yet she tried to stop him from doing something very stupid.

"That's enough! Drop your weapons now!"

"Make me."

As the rebel leader said those words, he and his goons aimed their guns at the soldiers instead of their hostages. The memories of the following chaos became rather fuzzy in Roy's mind after all these years, but he could still remember very clearly the outcome. Somehow, his mother had been hit, with the dead rebel leader lying next to her. Roy remembered perfectly her last words.

 _I'm just glad to see you're okay._

In the following hours, the news came to finish him. The planetary administration building, home to the Maian council, and thus his father, has been blown up by saboteurs. The government was now in shambles, with the Guard over its head trying to keep control of the cities. The planet was now officially in a state of civil war, and to make it worse, the quantum relay, the only way to communicate in real time with the rest of human civilization, was under the control of the Maian Liberation Front. This meant that they could feed false information to the rest of the Federation, and it'd take months for any ship to tell what truly happened. That is, if anyone would believe them. The only good news he got is that the ship carrying his siblings escaped to orbit relatively safely and was heading for Zenith Rise, the nearest human colony. Amelia could probably get help there, figure something out. In the meantime, he'd need a way to get back to them, and do it fast.

* * *

 **Several months later, Resistance outpost, somewhere in New Calypso**

Somehow, Roy ended up in charge of a small Resistance outpost near the administrative district. It was a small team, only seven people, using a maintenance room in the underground transport network. The situation was at a stalemate, but they retook the quantum relay faster than expected. As a result, a liberation fleet was scheduled to arrive in the coming days. Roy and his team, pretty much all teenagers, were only tasked with recon and intelligence gathering. They were actually pretty decent at it, too. Unfortunately, they couldn't understand why the Liberation Front didn't fight like crazed fanatics after they lost the quantum relay. They knew that a fleet was coming, their excuse for quarantine didn't hold for long and too much time had passed. And yet, they didn't surrender, they dug in, waiting for something. Maybe they thought that they could actually win this. If they did, then they had some cards to play, and right now, no one really knew what it was. The Federation's response did not change. The fleet would land a few divisions outside of the cities and they would then try to retake them one by one. Maia was in the habitable zone, but her atmosphere wasn't breathable for humans. Not enough oxygen, too much nitrogen. Without any breathing apparatus, someone could breath for about three minutes before passing out.

The military didn't want to compromise the dome cities, even if regulations made sure that there were contingencies in this case. As a result, the plan was to take control of the city's airlocks to get the military inside. If airlocks couldn't be secured, then they'd be breached.

* * *

 **D-Day, main airlock 3, New Calypso**

The Resistance, made up of both Guard reservists and militiamen, would coordinate simultaneous strikes on the city's largest airlocks. If even one of them was secured, the military could bring in heavy armor. Roy's cell, being a recon unit, wandered around airlock A-3 for a little while as part of the operation. They gathered any information they could and relayed it to the frontline units. To avoid unnecessary risks, they retreated deeper into the city prior to the operation to relay information about MLF reinforcements while the others secured the airlock. The battle didn't go as planned. The airlock was sabotaged, and the door only opened high enough for people to duck through. The MLF had them pinned without armor support. The two tanks in the airlock could blow up the door, but that meant no further reinforcements. Roy didn't want to stay idle while others died. He did that once, and he promised himself that he'd never let it happen again.

"Let's give them a hand, if we can break their lines here, the military can break through!"

"But we're not soldiers! How do we do anything about that?!"

"Send a car ? We could rig the controls with some bricks and stuff, I don't know."

"Oh sure! And when they figure out that we did this, we'll be dead meat!"

"Like they didn't know already! We're the only ones out there, everyone else ran away."

"Fine… we should help. But none of us know how to drive anything, how are we going to do that hijack?"

Back at the airlock, Resistance members and soldiers alike were pinned down, taking cover behind the barricades the MLF used to defend it in the first place. Half the Resistance team was dead, and the few soldiers that arrived weren't enough. The MLF was raining fire on them with a mix of laser, LENR and ballistic weapons. Most of them were huddled behind a large barricade about fifty meters in front of the airlock. That is, until a cargo truck rammed into them. Some rebels noticed it and dodged it, but a few were utterly crushed by it. As with nearly all vehicles in the Federation, the full-electric propulsion made it hard to hear them coming. Combined with a firefight, the result was quite… effective. The barricade was gone and the MLF lines were broken. To make things better, a second wave emerged from the airlock, some of them were engineers to repair the airlock's inner door. One of the soldiers, a team leader, probably, walked up to the truck wreck to inspect the result. Roy's team approached carefully to regroup with the friendly forces. It was a mop up now, anyway. The soldier noticed them and signaled them to join him.

"Who's in charge of you kids?"

"I am, why?"

"And you did this?" he asked, pointing to the truck.

"Umh… yeah?"

"That was a nice trick, these fuckers really weren't expecting it. What's your name?"

"Roy. Roy Anderson."

"Anderson, huh… Look, we're going to set up an FOB around here, know a good place?"

"Uh, sure, there's a parking lot south-east. Lots of cover and clear roads around. Sound pretty defensible."

"How old are you kid?"

"I'm turning sixteen next month, umh...sir?"

"Damn… they grow so fast… Okay, show us the way. You're doing fine work out there, kid."

And with the planetary capital secured, putting an end to the civil war took less than three weeks. With nothing left to keep him on this world, Roy decided to enroll in the Army. He had several letter of recommendation from several non-commissioned officers that he met in the previous months, and subsequently applied directly to a military academy to be trained as an officer. His three-year stay on the Federation's homeworld, Deoria, was far from vacations. With his pay remaining largely unnecessary, the military providing him food, shelter and education, most of his pay went straight to his sister. After his graduation, the young lieutenant was given the opportunity to join the Rangers, and spent half a year through the course. And thus began the story of Roy Anderson, 2nd Lieutenant of the Army Rangers.

* * *

 **Present day, Beacon Academy dorms**

"And then you know how I ended up here."

Roy was sitting in front of team RWBY in the dorm's recreation room. The sofas were really nice, but the coffee was horrible. The lieutenant instead settled for some tea, which wasn't really any better.

"So after that you just became a Ranger? Does that mean you're like, super-good?"

Roy chuckled. Ruby certainly was the most attentive of the four girls. Like him, she was a couple years younger that she should be, given her current title.

"Well, I'm a Ranger, yes. The youngest one ever, probably. But I never said I was a good one. I was the second-to-last in the class. I did pass and got the badge, but it was a close call. The training was meant for experienced soldiers, not green recruits. Besides, Rangers aren't Special Forces. We're...umh… more like a counter-insurgency unit."

"Did you get to see your family again?"

"See them on a screen, sure. They're doing fine now. Amelia's not an engineer, but she likes what she's doing. Josh and Jessica are in highschool, they should be graduating this year."

"I hope you get to see them again."

"Yeah, I hope so too."

"Sooooo… you're a special soldier, right? Can you do anything cool? What are you trained for?"

Yang was more interested in the practical stuff it seemed. She did listen to all the emotional bits, but obviously she either didn't want to dig in or it was her weird way to redirect the conversation to something more… joyful.

"Well, as an officer, it's more about teamwork than fighting. As a Ranger though, I was trained for a shitload of things. I can fly a Raven, I can shoot a moving tin can half a kilometer away, I can drive a tank up Central Alley without ripping the flower pots…"

Weiss interrupted him, or rather, raised her hand and Roy stopped to let her speak.

"What's a tank? You talked about those before but I never heard of them."

"Seriously? You don't have those here? Damn… Well, put simply, it's a big truck, with a big gun and thick armor."

"Really? That's all? It doesn't sound that useful."

"Oh, believe me, they are. Maybe not against Grimm, sure, and even then, I still think they could put down a Deathstalker fairly easily... but against a human army? They're essential. They bring heavy firepower on a highly mobile platform that's immune to most weapons."

"How strong are we talking about?"

Of course Yang would ask that. Roy could feel her thoughts. _Can I beat one_.

"Well… a Grizzly's main gun can punch through half a meter of caniral up to six kilometers away."

"Uuh… what's caniral?" asked Ruby. She was confused, as a gun-nut she knew almost every alloy in the book.

"Ah, sorry. It's basically an alloy that's better than steel. We use it for pretty much everything. It's lighter, stronger and stainless."

"Ooohh, what is it made of? Can we make some? Crescent Rose could use an upgrade…"

"Look, I'm no metallurgist. I know it's made of carbon, nickel, iron and aluminium. And some chromium, too. But I also know it's some very precise manufacturing so I'm not sure it's replicable here."

"Aw" was all the little Grimm Reaper said. Roy resisted the urge to pat her on the head. Instead, he got up from the sofa.

"Well girls, I'm going back to my team. I hope you enjoyed that little story time."

"See you tomorrow!"

"See ya!"


	9. Chapter 9: Remembrance, part 2

**Saturday afternoon, Beacon library**

Stella was sitting on a table, alone. In front of her were several books about Grimm Studies, Aura, Semblances and Faunus history, as well as a terminal to the CCTS. The girl was writing notes, flicking through various pages. With her Beacon uniform, she looked like any other student, but anyone reading her notes would quickly understand that she really isn't. Genetic drift models, genome re-sequencing theories, artificial growth serum… If any Beacon student read this, they'd look at her with wide eyes and confusion. Well, to be honest, even her instructor would probably be confused. She tried to combine stuff she'd learn and find a semblance of similarity with what Remnant had to offer. Eh, Semblance. If one thing in particular made absolutely no sense from a scientific point of view, it was that. Sometimes hereditary, sometimes random. More often than not, unique symptoms for each host. As Stella laid back with a sigh, looking into the ceiling, a familiar voice called out her name.

"Stella! Mind if I sit with you? What are you working on?"

Weiss stood a couple of feet from her, with a few school books of her own.

"Oh, sure, go ahead. I'm working on a side project. I'm trying to link Aura and Semblance to things I know."

"Aren't you supposed to keep these kind of things… secret?"

"I am. But I'm pretty sure anyone reading what I'm doing will just thing I'm making it all up."

"Can I see it?"

"Oh, sure. I don't think it'll make much sense to you, though."

After seeing Weiss's face, Stella knew she was right. Disappointed, the heiress gave her notebook back.

"Yeah. I see what you mean, now. How long have you been here?"

"Here? You mean the library? Uuhh…" Stella pulled her Scroll from her pocket and checked the time. "A few hours…"

"Do you want to join us for some tea when I'm done with these?" asked Weiss, waving at her own books. "Ruby won't stop talking about it, so I might as well bring good company to keep it bearable."

Stella chuckled at the thought, keeping her hand on her mouth to mitigate the sound. They were in a library, after all.

"Sure. I'm not really doing anything today, anyway."

* * *

 **Later that day, team RWBY's dorm**

Pyrrha, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Stella were all sitting around in the room, each sipping from their tea cup. They were all in their casual outfit, or, combat dresses for two of them. And a bronze chest piece. Because why not. Stella stopped questioning her new friends' sense of fashion long ago.

"So, how did that exam go for you girls? I'm totally going for the resit session."

"Uuuhh, Ruby? I don't think you're supposed to be proud of that."

"I know, but it's stuff I never saw before, soooo, getting to the resit is almost as good as passing it."

"That test was quite difficult." said Pyrrha with a nod.

"Well… it was a multiple choice assessment. If you crammed the exam like I did, you'd be at least average, I'm sure of it."

"Easy for you to say that, you're always studying with Weiss!" retorqued Ruby, pouting.

Weiss sighed and put back her cup.

"Actually, she does most of the work on her own, and I'm already helping you plenty."

"Mph. How can you even learn all of that?"

"Ah. Old habits die hard, I guess…"

* * *

 **Two years ago, Federation's capital city of Neo Avalon, planet Deoria**

Stella had always wanted to be a doctor, or a nurse. Her mother worked at the hospital, while her father was a simple store clerk. Her two younger brothers, Sam and Loyd, were wandering from future firemen to future engineers from day to day. The luxury of youth, her mother said. As for herself, Stella had graduated from high school with honors. She skipped a year in primary, so she was turning seventeen now. And she failed the exams for medical school. She learned the news back home, from an email and the official platform. With her biology major, anything too technical was out of her reach and she hated economics. And she really wanted to be a doctor, to help people. It was what her mom did, and every time her mom told her stories about her work, Stella's passion only burned harder.

Stella wandered in the streets on her way home, two bags full of groceries in her arms. She passed the bakery, the book store. All those landmarks that she knew she'd have to leave behind one day. When she passed a popular commercial alley, she spotted one of the Guard patrols. After the failed Maian coup, these were getting increasingly common. And then she heard the screeching of tires and the screams of people. She looked back into the alley, and where people used to hang out and talk, there was a car crash. Some people ran away, others just watched. And then she saw the three soldiers rush to the scene, trying to get the driver and the passengers out. That was the day that forged her future.

What Stella wanted above everything, was to feel useful. To make people's lives better. After failing the entrance exam for med school, she feared that dream would never come true. But after seeing the look of everyone in that street, she knew there was another way. It wouldn't exactly make her a doctor like her mom, but she knew that the Army could pay a tuition for medical studies. You would be forced to serve at least ten years, but you would be someone with medical experience afterward. Naturally, her parents weren't fond of the idea, and even threatened to disown her if she left. But she didn't really care. She knew, deep down, that it was an empty threat. And so, she filled the paperwork and left for boot camp. For the worse days of her life.

* * *

 **Several weeks later, Fort Kehning**

The Army life, heavily romanticized by movies and other medias, was far from easy. Even in a time of relative peace, the training was exhausting. Basic training was twelve weeks, followed by a major for twenty-four weeks and minors for eight weeks each. All in all, that was roughly an entire year before leaving boot camp, and nearly no vacations in between. Several recruits had already given up, but Stella had her sights on that Combat Medical Expertise badge. She failed an exam once, she wouldn't fail another. Physical training was pushing her to her limits. Stella never really was fond of sports, and her grades showed. She almost always ended up below average, but compensated with theoretical subjects and marksmanship. The Deorian military was exclusively voluntary-based, and as such had a very high standard for its troops, both physical and intellectual. The fact that the Federation had far more population than the two rivalling nations was about the only thing keeping this policy viable, however. They knew that the Empire of Shilus had more advanced technology and the support of the Eastern Conglomerate. Tensions were high, but they had always been. That's what she always heard. From the news, from her parents, her grandparents, her instructors. If she remembered her history lessons, the Empire of Shilus was born two centuries ago from a breakaway colony from a near-livable planet. One of the only four humanity had ever found.

What amazed Stella was how, after thousands of years of evolution, humanity was still trying to kill itself at the first opportunity. Well, maybe not the first opportunity, but close enough. She was in her bunk, the barracks being far from insonorized enough to her taste. It was late in the night, but she could still hear the platoons exercising outside and the occasional vehicle passing through the base. She was glad that her unit wasn't outside tonight. She shuffled in her bunk, until she decided that she was comfortable enough. She didn't like it here, but she wasn't going to stay here much longer. She did well, surprisingly, and so, she got admitted into the medical course. If she did well there, then maybe she'd be transferred to the Medical Corps and follow the full course in college. A girl can dream, right?

* * *

 **Half a year later, ODS-12 station, Deoria high orbit**

God, she hated space. The feeling of free float was sickening, and they'd been training there for weeks. Even if the station itself had artificial gravity, at a steady 0.6g, most of the exercises were about space warfare. And for her, it was also about zero-g first aid. On the float, bleeding was a death sentence. Without anything to keep blood on the wound, bandages and medical gel were vital. And in case of internal bleeding, well, the only hope is to reach a med-bay before it would be too late. As a field medic, her job was to stabilize and send the wounded back to wherever she was instructed to. A marine's job was to get things done, not wonder why. Even though, Stella wondered how did she end up here, fifty thousand kilometers from home, in a bubble of air and metal. She either pissed off or impressed her instructor back in Kehning, that was all she could gather.

Admittedly, it didn't really matter much. The Naval Infantry branch, or just marines for everyone else, was the branch that saw the most action in the last decades, which meant better career prospects and, well, more opportunities to save lives. She was in the final stage of her training as a soldier, but as a medical practitioner, her work was far from over. She'd have to keep studying and she'd have exams for at least the next two years, but it's what she wanted, so the thought was reassuring more than dreadful. Quite a few of her comrades were still thinking of her as the naive kind that thought she could play the hero at the first opportunity. Maybe they were right, she did thought she could be a hero. But she wasn't naive, far from it. In the coming days, they would all receive their first assignment. Most of them would ship out to every corner of the Federation, and would probably never see each other again. Stella was suddenly pulled from her day dreaming with the battle stations alarm rang throughout the station. A familiar voice echoed through the corridor and intercom.

"Attention platoon D! You rookies are to report on airlock seven in ten minutes, I repeat, platoon D to airlock seven in ten minutes!"

Ah, drill sergeant Jianhong, always straight to the point. Well, all of them were, but Jianhong never really seemed human. He never spent any time with anyone outside of his shifts. It's as if he left the station whenever he wasn't needed. Of course, that wasn't possible, as the station had very little in terms of air traffic. Stella didn't have time to daze off. After equipping her suit, checking the seals and running the basic diagnostics, she caught the rifle that Nate just threw at her.

Nate had been with her since day one. They even met in one of the recruitment center, although only he remembered that. He was a good friend, and, well, a bit more than that. Stella's had boyfriends and lovers before, her good looks and generous proportions made her rather popular in high school, one way or the other. None of those relationships really lasted longer than a few months, though. With Nate, it felt… different. The fact that it had to be in secret was one thing, yes, but there was also a bond that emerged from a year of intense training.

"Time to dance, Mercy." he said with a wink.

Stella nodded back and donned her helmet. The heads-up display came up in an instant, the blue interface displaying her suit's status, her team's, and her weapon's. She jogged all the way to airlock seven, just like the rest of her platoon. Twenty seven rookies, and more than half of them coming from the colonies. They all stood in front of Jianhong, ready for their mission.

"Rookies! Fifteen klicks from that airlock is a dummy ship. Your orders are to board it and seize control of it. Platoon E is already on-board and instructed to repel any invader. Yes, this does mean that you are on a blue-on-blue scenario. Both you and platoon E's performance will influence your final exercise next week. Good luck."

Jianhong stepped aside and punched a large button on the wall. The airlock's inner wall opened, and platoon D walked in, three rows of nine rookies in a perfect rectangle. The inner door closed, and the airlock cycled the air inside. Soon, all Stella could hear was her own breath and the radio chatter. Nate was her team leader, and his face appeared in the top right corner of her HUD.

"Okay team, our objective is right ahead. Looks fairly standard, team A's taking the port airlock, we're going for starboard. Team C's going for the hangar."

Everyone raised their fist to acknowledge, and fired their EVA pack. Their target was fifteen kilometers away. A long distance for infantry, but for spaceships, it was the common safety distance. The transit would take them only a few minutes of constant acceleration, followed by constant deceleration. The same that happened with anything in space, really. Once they reached their target, barely more than a few converted cargo containers welded together, the three squads diverged to their respective objectives. Shortly after everyone landed on the hull with their mag boots, a trio of blue flares emerged from the ship's belly. Stella's HUD flagged them as a threat, and Nate talked through the squad-only channel.

"Heat-seekers. Let's take 'em out quickly, they're probably just here to see what we're doing."

Their weapons weren't loaded with a hydrogen core, and their barrels were replaced by electronic laser emitters. In short, they were firing training rounds at everything. The three drones from platoon E were quickly disabled, but everyone could feel tiny vibrations through the ground. They were moving. In response, platoon D rushed to their designated breaching positions and stormed the place. Or they would have, if they didn't lose half of their numbers in the first dozen meters. Luckily for them, Nate had the brilliant idea of simply cutting through the walls to flank the crossroads, and it kinda worked well enough. When both platoons returned, Jianhong was waiting for them all at the briefing room. Both platoons had done well, apparently. To be fair, they did have a close win, with only three left standing.

"Well done, maggots. You may finally be worth the title of soldiers. That was one hell of a show. Your final exam will be on-board the _St-Michel_ for platoon D, and the _Novgorod_ for platoon E. Let me warn you, this will be a joint exam with the Space Force, but both exams are not taking place at the same time. Both ships will arrive here in four days, until then, I expect you to keep up the good work and make the Army proud. Have I made myself clear?"

"Sir! Yes sir!" yelled everyone.

"Good. Dismissed."

Before she could leave the room, however, the drill sergeant called her out, along with Nate and someone from platoon E. He spoke to her first.

"Congratulations, private Sternberg. Your performance is exemplary, keep it up and I'm putting you in for a promotion."

"Thank you, sir."

"I've seen your request for the Medical Corps. I'm afraid but that will not be possible. You're a good soldier, but you don't have what it takes to be an officer."

"I… yes sir!"

"Private Emerson, private Falkner, that was some very good thinking, if a bit reckless, Emerson. Your teams have found some good leaders. I'm recommending you both for a promotion as well."

He stepped back and saluted all three rookies.

"You three did very well on this station. Now live up to the expectations. Dismissed."

* * *

 **Destroyer** _ **Kashgar**_ **, Shilus-Federation border**

Stella's been a field medic and doctor-in-training for the past three weeks on-board the _Kashgar_. Her direct superior officer, Sergeant James Chester, seemed rather satisfied of her performance. Nate and her broke up the day before they both embarked on their respective ships. Neither of them were really keen on keeping a long-distance relationship. She was a private first-class, now, which meant that she could order around almost two thirds of the entire ship's security team, if she wanted to. And, well, sometimes she had to do that to keep some of the boys off her for a moment. Her tutor, doctor Pozelri, was a Space Force lieutenant, but always preferred to be called doctor. She and Stella were among the reason why the infirmary was so popular. The other being, as expected, the dangers of serving on a warship. After three weeks, she was almost done with her advanced training, and the only thing that could change is to be recommended for the Medical Corps and Officer Course. Stella was walking through the dull corridors of the ship, ready to start her shift.

"Sternberg, come help me out with this one."

"On it, doctor!"

Doctor Pozelri was trying to scan a sailor, but the scanner needed someone over the controls and someone to monitor the results and the patient. It wasn't anything serious, like most things that happened on the ship. She learned a lot more on-board the _Kashgar_ than back at camp, since there wasn't much action in space. She worked hard, spending as much time in the ship's library and virtual training center as possible. Even if she wasn't cut out for officer duties, perhaps her skills would take her into the Medical Corps anyway. She would probably never get to know.

It all happened so quickly. She was in the infirmary, taking care of the few injured scientists and technicians when the whole ship fluttered and trembled again. This time, the ship wasn't showing any restrain. She could feel each gun firing, the vibration reverberating through the hull like an earthquake. Stella rushed to one of the terminals and called Elena.

"Elena, what's going on? Who are we shooting?"

Elena appeared on the screen, joyful as always.

"Mmmh, a good question. Unknown drive signature, unknown capabilities. It seems Captain Robins doesn't like surprise parties."

The ship trembled and several red notifications popped up on the terminal. Elena continued, her smile was gone.

"Well, things are getting interesting."

Before Stella could ask anything more, the AI vanished, leaving the infirmary awfully silent. Stella was still wearing her armor, since she didn't stop by the armory on her way to the infirmary. Before long, boarders breached decks 4, 5 and 7. And then the order came in.

Abandon ship.

Her commanding officer asked her to leave the infirmary and join the rest of her squad in the hangar. Others tried the lifeboats, only to be killed on their way through the corridors. And then, as she reached the main corridor leading into the hangar, she and her group were thrown into the wall. Something happened, something really bad. Had the ship been cut in half? Did they lose that badly? Her armor saved her, unlike many others. She limped toward the hangar, and waited for Chester to give her orders. Next thing she knew, she was on a Raven, with a lieutenant that she only saw a couple of times and half a dozen scared sailors. It felt wong on so many levels to just leave everyone there. Maybe some of them were still alive, no one could know, and Elena wasn't responding to check on everyone's status. She tried so hard, and all the universe had to answer is a massive slap in the face and a middle finger so big it could hide the sun.

* * *

 **Present day, team RWBY's dorm**

"So yeah, working hard's just been the usual for me. And to be honest, your Aura and Semblance thing is kinda fun to study."

Weiss chuckled and sipped some tea.

"I wouldn't go that far, but… yes, considering your past experience, I guess you could say that."

Pyrrha and Ruby remained still, Ruby trying not to cry and Pyrrha with an apologetic look in her eyes. The bronze-clad girl shook her head and smiled.

"Sooo, how did you and Nate… You know…"

Ah, back to girl talks, then. Stella smiled. She wouldn't enjoy this kind of luxury for long, if she was to believe the lieutenant...


	10. Chapter 10: Remembrance, part 3

**Early evening, Beacon hangars**

If there was one thing Eizan felt comfortable with, it was the sound of an aircraft undergoing maintenance. The mechanic was lying under one of the Raven's massive fusion drive, a 14mm crank wrench in hand. It was a shame that he had to play student all the time. Repairs that would've taken a few weeks on full time would now take several months. That, combined with the lack of spare parts, was frustrating at times, but also stimulating. Finding innovative ways to fix things was what got him is rank, after all. Hot Dog, however, was a good pilot, but also a shitty mechanic. He knew the basic principles of everything about his plane, but that was about it. So most of the work fell into the shoulders of Eizan, and to some extent, Ruby. The girl learned fast, way too fast. Then again, he really only taught her about the regular stuff, it wasn't rocket science. Ruby was sitting on a tool cabinet, waving her legs and blasting rock music with her Scroll. Casey Lee Williams, good music. Eizan rolled from under the engine nacelle and stood up.

"Hey Ruby, where did you learn so much about mechanical engineering?"

"Back at Signal, my uncle helped me design and build Crescent Rose and, uuhh, since then I've been kind of a dork when it comes to weapons…"

Eizan grabbed a stepladder and climbed onto the engine.

"Yeah, we noticed. It's not really a bad thing, though. I dig it."

Ruby chuckled and used her Semblance to sit on top of the aircraft.

"Yeah, but that's because it's your job."

"Meh. Could be yours, too. At fifteen years old, that's gotta be a record."

"I don't think Roy would appreciate that…"

Eizan laughed, dropping his wrench on the floor.

"Ah, scheiße... Ahem. Yeah, the lieutenant would probably chew my ass and spit it back in a recycler if I showed you too much."

Ruby stared confused, unsure of the meaning of the sentence, while Eizan climbed down the stepladder. With a front flip, she landed on the ground and joined him, running her hand across the smooth hull of the craft.

"And what about you? How did you learn about all that… stuff you're doing?"

"Oh, I've been doing my job for quite some time now, but I guess it all began with my idiot of a brother. See, that guy's a real nerd..."

* * *

 **Two years ago, city of New Lexington, planet Sowings**

A planet with low gravity and no breathable atmosphere doesn't sound like a very interesting place to live on. Then again, if said planet was extremely rich in valuable minerals, quite a few would give it a try anyway. Working in the mines was generally done with remote controlled drones, and as such, the best drones usually brings the best hauls. Of course, all of it was highly regulated, with most of the work being done by private corporations. That didn't stop anyone from trying to provide the best drone designs, and generally, those people were students. Shoda Nakao, a twenty-one-year-old engineering student, was one of them. The young man was in a garage, welding some plates together on a small cart-like machine. A yell coming from the door took his attention.

"Shoda! You better finish up quick, or else mom's gotta kick your sorry ass into orbit!"

"I hear ya, I'm almost done. There."

"Come on, dinner's been ready for the last fifteen minutes!"

The two siblings quickly reached the living room, where the rest of the family was waiting. Their parents and sister were all waiting, as usual. The meal went on, until the small talks reached Eizan's future.

"Son, you can't wait forever. You'll be graduating soon, and you still haven't applied to anything. You don't even have time left for college."

"I know, dad, I just… don't like the opportunities here."

"That's not a thing, bro. You're just lazy, that's all."

"We've already been over this. I'll find something. I promise."

"You better, because we won't always be there for you."

Their sister was not amused, and frankly, had better things to talk about that her brother.

"Dad, can we talk about something else?"

The thing is, they were right. Eizan was the youngest of his siblings, and thus far, the only one not going into college. Shoda's engineering studies were fun when it was all about tinkering with stuff, but the rest seemed… annoying, to say the least. His sister, Hisako, was studying economics for the past year and, quite frankly, bragged too much about it. Finally, New Lexington, and the whole planet in general, was rather small. This meant that there wasn't that much choice in the first place, or else you'd have to go off world. Eizan was lying on the roof of the house, thinking about his options. The massive dome above the city, even with its numerous bulkheads and scaffolding, couldn't hide the sky. Several dots were brighter, those would be the ships and stations in orbit. Raising a hand towards the unreachable stars, Eizan sighed before the face of his brother appeared in his field of view.

"So, wanna reach for the stars, uh? I always knew you didn't really like it here. Frontier life's too boring, right?"

"I wouldn't really put it THAT way, but… yeah, that sounds about right."

"And you know we can't afford an off world education, so you're just daydreaming now."

"Yup."

"Now that's just depressing. Come on, let's do something more productive."

And the rest of the evening was spent in the garage, tinkering with Shoda's latest drone. Eizan didn't know the numbers behind, but even then, building things like that was fun enough. He didn't care about how to build new things, just making them work was good enough. Sadly, the colony wasn't developed enough to have a need of both engineers and technicians. The idea was that, if you can design and build things, then you can fix them, and all of that for the same amount of food. It worked well enough so far, and it would probably work for a while longer. Not willing to think about his life the whole night, Eizan went to bed and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

 **The morning after, streets of New Lexington**

With a population of nearly fifteen million people crammed into half a dozen dome cities, the streets were always full. Life on the Frontier was always busy, one way or another. But it was busy with trivial things, uninteresting things. As he walked in the streets, Eizan suddenly stopped in front of a regular supermarket. It was his turn to get the groceries, after all. He wandered through the alleys, grabbing canned food, laundry detergent… On his way back, Eizan noticed a brighter light in the sky. Military-grade fusion drive, a rare sight on Sowings. Distracted by the unknown ship, Eizan tripped over some wires, spilling some of his cargo on the ground. Some people helped him up, and while thanking them, he noticed some recruitment posters on the wall. One in particular. _Explore the galaxy, defend your home_. It was a Space Force poster, one that no one really cared about. The only recruitment office was on the station in orbit. He'd have to find a ride there if he ever wanted to give it a try. After returning home, Eizan spent the rest of the morning searching for more information and left right after lunch. Luckily for him, the colony didn't have a space elevator, but a multitude of landing pads and docks. Most of those were occupied by private ships and shuttles that would gladly take on passengers for some extra money. And so, that's what he did. His own pocket money would be enough for a two-way trip in orbit, especially with a third-rate shuttle.

* * *

 **Afternoon, Sowings station**

When he reached the station, he recognized the Deorian destroyer docked to its side. It was damaged, with several wounds to its outer hull. So that was why it was here. When Eizan reached the recruitment office, which was in fact the local Space Force outpost for all intent and purpose, and not just a recruitment office, two high ranking officers were yelling at each other, with a station employee among them.

"I'm telling you, we simply don't have the resources to perform the repairs you're suggesting with the timetable you're imposing!"

"And I'm telling you that the safety of this colony depends on it!"

"Gentlemen, please, calm down! There's no need to yell at each other in my office!"

Eizan knocked on the open door, and both men, probably the ship's captain and the station's manager, stopped yelling. The third one cleared his throat and walked over to him.

"Yes? Do you need something, young man?"

"Ummhh… is this where we can enlist?"

"Oh, yes, of course! Just a moment."

The man returned to the ship captain and station manager, who just resumed their conversation.

"Gentlemen, please, I'm trying to run an outpost, here! Just… just use my office, okay? It's insonorized so you can yell all you want."

The captain threw the man a death glare, but the station manager nodded and dragged his interlocutor in the private office. As they closed the opaque glass door, the office administrator sighed and returned to Eizan, who was just looking at the scene dumbfounded.

"And I thought getting a desk job would've been nice and calm…"

"Uummhh, is it always like that?"

"No, it's not, let me reassure you. I'm Captain Saïd. So you want to enlist?"

"Yeah, umh, I'm Eizan, and I'm not really sure yet, so I thought you could tell me more."

"Oh, I see. It is rather common for people of the Frontier like you to do the exact thing you're doing."

"Really? No one really cared back home."

"Ah, you're from New Lexington, then? Yeah, since you guys have that mine and college, a lot of you kids don't even think about leaving home. That said, your low-G drone racing thing is pretty nice, too."

"You watch those? My brother and I won a cup, once. But the drone had a… bad braking mechanism."

"Oh, you're the guys that crashed a drone in the staging area? Man, that was funny to watch. Umh, no offense, kid."

"None taken."

"Okay, so I figure the best way to show you what the Space Force is about is to take you on the tour. I'm sure captain Flemings won't mind."

"Are… you allowed to do that?"

"I outrank him. He may be a ship captain, but I'm an actual Captain while he's not, so I can do all I want around here. Although, yeah, he could file a report. That's why I'm only going to show you what's publicly available."

"O-Okay, sure. Sounds good."

The man pointed to his office, with two silhouettes apparently still yelling at each other inside.

"Besides, they're gonna stay there for a while. It's a good occasion to do something."

"So, wait, captains and ship captains aren't the same thing?"

"Oh no, most ship captains are Commanders or less. As a rule of thumb, any ship larger than a destroyer is captained by a Captain or higher, and most destroyers are captained by Commanders or even particularly competent Lieutenant-Commanders."

"I… see. So if you have such a high rank… why are you here?"

Saïd scratched his head before answering, smiling nervously. Without his facial hair, he could've looked in his early forties, but right now, he looked like an old veteran of some forgotten war.

"Uuummhhh… I may not be so fond of the chain of command when it fucks up. Alright son, here we are. Careful, once we step out of the airlock, gravity's gone."

In the short time since they left the office, Saïd and Eizan had already reached the airlock leading into the destroyer. Its name was written in white on the ship's dark grey hull. _Atlantia_. It sounded pretty cool, too. Both men used the handholds to launch themselves toward the ship, the thin docking corridor protecting them from the void.

* * *

 **A few minutes later, destroyer** ** _Atlantia_**

If anything about the _Atlantia_ surprised Eizan more than anything, it was how clean everything was. Even after a battle, the ship's corridors, rooms, and even the crew members seemed immaculate. Most of the damage seemed superficial, or Saïd didn't take him through the damaged sections of the ship. It was so large, it might be the latter and Eizan would never know. The corridors were all dark grey, with lights regularly placed in the corner between the roof and the walls. According to Saïd, most surfaces were covered with spall liners to reduce the dangers of shrapnel, but Eizan couldn't see anything but metal wherever he looked. After a few minutes of greeting crew members and seeing various rooms such as the gym, the mess hall and the infirmary, Saïd led Eizan to a more interesting place, the hangar. A couple dozen men in dark blue jumpsuits were huddling around a large aircraft.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing. That Raven took a few hits, so they're fixing it up as fast as they can."

"Why the hurry?"

Saïd laughed and put a hand on Eizan's shoulder, smiling as if he just said a good joke.

"Son, with the Force, it's always in a hurry. Wanna take a look?"

"Umh, sure… why not…"

"Don't worry, Ravens are no secret to anyone, so you won't be in trouble, if that's what you're wondering."

"Are we sure all of this is… you know… normal? I mean, showing me around is nice, sure… but…"

"Son, I've got the feeling that you're not leaving this station without signing some very important papers. I've seen quite a few kids just like you, and I'm rarely wrong. So, take a look at that bird, tell me what you think."

As the duo approached the craft, a few mechanics noticed them, and everyone stopped working for a moment.

"Officer on deck!"

Everyone in the vicinity stood up and saluted Saïd, waiting for his word.

"At ease, gentlemen. This is Eizan, a promising future recruit. Care to show him around this old bird?"

The oldest-looking mechanic, a man in his thirties with African descent nodded and turned to Eizan.

"Yes, sir! Right this way, kid. I'm Chief Trey, nice to meet you. So what are you aiming for?"

"Umh… I'm pretty good with drones, so I thought, maybe a technician?"

"Electronics? Naah, boring. Here, look at that beast."

"Oh, you're still using those magnetic couplers? I thought you replaced those months ago!"

"You know the sayin', if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Besides, we've been out in the Frontier for two years now, and we're not returning to dry dock for a little while."

"That kinda sucks. Do you guys ever go home?"

"Oh, there's a crew rotation in place, so you rarely stay on the same ship more than a year without a nice shore leave."

The crew resumed their work, with Eizan still discussing about various subjects with Trey. After the visit, Saïd escorted him back to the office and surprisingly, Saïd's office had even more people in it that when they left. Saïd pointed to a desk computer and grabbed a pamphlet.

"Okay, so now I'll walk you through the more administrative stuff…"

* * *

 **Two years later, destroyer** ** _Kashgar_**

Being a Petty Officer had some nice advantages. You lead a team, you get a nice paycheck, a shiny uniform… but then you also have a ton of paperwork to fill out every day. Like requisition request for more spare parts, tools and shore leaves authorizations. Eizan was in his "office", a small three-square meter cabin near the hangar. Or rather, a converted storage locker for all the bullshit paperwork that he needed to do since his promotion. Someone knocked on the wall to catch Eizan's attention. It was one of his mechanics, probably about to ask something about their latest job.

"Uh, boss, so that Needletail that the grunts brought on-board, it's got some really weird shit in it."

"Yeah, XO came in and told me something about it, they'll unload it and store in down in Engineering for safekeeping. He also told me not to touch it, or he'll kick all our asses and send us in the farthest most shitty place he can find."

"Ooookay, so that's a thing."

"Yup."

The days were simple. Hang around the hangar, fix the two Ravens each time they go out and come back banged up, run the regular maintenance planning, maintain the two Caracals and their various modules… being a mechanic was simple, really. Sometimes accidents could happen, but that was just an occasion to hang around the infirmary of the medbay, and to hang around that Sternberg girl. Eizan stretched his arms and stepped out of his office. The hangar was a large area, with three landing bays for aircrafts and one garage for each bay, two of them housing Caracal APCs and the last one housing an Ocelot recon vehicle. The _Kashgar_ had two Ravens on-board, but their latest mission brought in a Needletail. Those were very rare and expensive crafts, with extremely good maneuverability and acceleration, but they were generally unarmed and not very versatile. They were built for speed and durability, and so that was pretty much the only things it was good at. Unlike Ravens, Needletails had vectored thrusters for vertical takeoffs and landings, but their main drive was static. This meant a lot more parts to check, and a lot more paperwork to fill. Before Eizan could think of anything more, the ship's lighting switched to battle mode and the battle stations alarm went off.

"All hands, this is your captain speaking. Man your battle stations, this is not a drill, I repeat, man your battle stations. We have inbound unknown vessels, brace for combat actions."

Before long, the ship had taken a few hits. Everyone in the hangar was wearing their EVA suits, which was pretty much a vacuum-proof helmet and a sealed suit, and the ship itself was in vacuum. It wouldn't protect them against bullets or plasma rounds, but it would avoid unwanted decompressions. Decompressions that would've certainly happened, as several tremors through the ship indicated that it got hit, and that it lost its shields. This was confirmed when something went through the starboard hangar door in an instant, creating a hole in both the door and the bulkhead above it, ending its course through the decks above. Whatever it was, it wasn't a plasma cannon. Then the ship was somehow boarded. When the battle stations alarm rang, everyone rushed to the armories, grabbing whatever gun and ammo they could. Of course, the ship's marines were already waiting all geared up since they finished their last mission recently, so that made things simpler.

But it wasn't enough.

After some intense firefights, it was obvious that repelling the boarders was going to be tricky. So tricky, in fact, that the ship was being abandoned. The ship where he spent the last two years, his own home floating in space towards certain death. Well, possibly. Escaping with the ship's on-board aircrafts instead of the lifeboats meant that the objective was to ensure the survival of whoever would be on them, and not just running away from a flying tomb. With that said, Eizan took the last flight, along with eleven others, mostly because fighting your way to Engineering wasn't exactly his job.

* * *

 **Present time, Beacon hangars**

"That's pretty much it. The life of a mechanic. Not as exciting as a Huntress, but I like it that way."

"You sure did more than I do…"

"Yeah, well, you're still fifteen. You're on your way to some crazy shit of yours, too."

A new voice answered him, forcing the mechanic to turn around.

"Is that how you work when I'm not around?"

"Hot Dog, you know I'm not a robot, right?"

"Relax, I'm just mockin' ya. Who am I to judge, right?"

Spencer was waving around his bottle of beer and sat on a pile of crates. He lit one of his cigarettes before continuing.

"So, how's it looking?"

"Going as planned. Checked the starboard engine, should be working fine."

Ruby looked at both men, then grabbed her Scroll to turn off the music.

"Well, uh, it's been a good talk. I'll leave you to...whatever you're doing. See ya!"

"See ya, Ruby. And good night, I guess."


End file.
